March 27 through April 2 will be the final week of the Art AIDS America exhibit and events at Alphawood Gallery.
Extended hours for Free HIV Testing*:
Thursday, March 30, 11am - 8pm
Saturday, April 1, 11am - 6pm
Theatre | AIDS On Stage
Monday, March 27, 6-9pm
About Face Theatre presents a series of readings of HIV/AIDS focused plays to provide a retrospective look at how theatre artists have addressed the devastating health crisis throughout the decades. This week features the play "And All The Dead Lie Down" by Harrison David Rivers. When an unexpected phone call upsets Alvin and Foss' usual Saturday routine, the couple must navigate a minefield of long suppressed resentments, past histories and hurt feelings. "And All the Dead Lie Down" is a portrait of a sero-discordant couple at a crossroads, a couple pondering the questions: Is Love enough to sustain a relationship? And is it worth the risk? Reservations encouraged as seating is limited. Gallery opens at 6pm. Reading starts at 7pm.
Exhibition Tour | Visible Women
Thursday, March 30, 6pm
This tour, led by Alphawood Gallery Associate Claire Fey, focuses on female artists represented in Art AIDS America, contextualizing their work and their identities in the larger history of HIV/AIDS art and activism. Inspired by the title of a documentary on view in the exhibition, this tour explores a multiplicity of female voices and experiences, spanning from the beginning of the crisis until today. The tour will cover the work of artists Kia Labeija, Chloe Dzubilo, Howardena Pindell, Annie Leibovitz, Catherine Opie and more.
Gallery Talk | Art, AIDS, Action: Cruising History, Cruising Politics
Friday, March 31, 4:30-6pm
Join Art AIDS America artist Oli Rodriguez and Dr. Virginia Solomon, Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Memphis, for a conversation about queer space, movements and meanings, activist strategies, hybrid spaces and Chicago's shifting histories and landscapes. Program also includes discussion of artist collectives General Idea and Gran Fury as well as a screening of select interviews from Rodriguez's Papi Project.
Exhibition Tour
Saturday, April 1, 1pm
Join Director of Exhibitions Tony Hirschel on the final public tour of Art AIDS America.
Performance | The Dead Taste Sweeter Than the Living ( After Felix Gonzalez-Torres ) by Emilio Rojas in collaboration with Paul Escriva
Saturday, April 1
2:30 to 4pm at DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton
4:15 to 5:30pm at Alphawood Gallery, 2401 N. Halsted
A multimedia performance by Emilio Rojas with Paul Escriva inspired by Art AIDS America and the companion exhibition One day this kid will get larger at DePaul Art Museum, The Dead Taste Sweeter Than the Living is a mobile, interactive event that takes place at both art spaces with a procession in between. The project began and continues with the daily collection of pieces of candy from Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Untitled ( Portrait of Ross in LA ), 1991, at the Art Institute of Chicago. Rojas uses these elements in public performances to initiate a dialogue around mourning, grief, celebration and the impact of loss in queer communities through the AIDS crisis.
Panel | Lessons in Activism with Condom Cloud performance by Joseph Ravens
Sunday, April 2, 1pm
Jennie Brier, Director of the Gender and Women's Studies program at the University of Illinois Chicago and Project Director of In Plain Sight: A Women's History of HIV/AIDS, will lead a final panel exploring how the history of HIV/AIDS activism can help us in the current political moment. Panelists include artistic, educational and activist leaders Rae Lewis-Thornton ( Emmy Award: Hard News, Living With AIDS ), Ricardo Jimenez ( Vida/SIDA ), Graunk Enzenberger ( Pink Angels ), Max Boykin ( AIDS Foundation of Chicago ) and artist Oli Rodriguez.
Performance | Salonathon: Call Forth the Future
Sunday, April 2, 6-8pm — note extended hours
This special edition of Salonathon features artists performing in response to the Art AIDS America exhibition, asking what our futures look like as artists, activists and makers. Founded in 2011, Salonathon is an engine for experimental work, an inclusive creative community and a great party!
*Full Schedule of FREE HIV Testing This Week:
Wednesday 3-6pm
Thursday 11am-8pm
Friday 3-6pm
Saturday 11am-6pm
Sunday 1-6pm
Please find Art AIDS America admission information at the link: artaidsamericachicago.us13.list-manage1.com/track/click .
OFF-SITE EVENTS:
Express Talk | Art AIDS America
Art Institute of Chicago, 159 E. Monroe St.
Wednesday, March 29, 12-12:30pm
Join a museum educator for the last in a series of conversation-based gallery talks that explore the work of artists in the Art Institute's collection that engage with the undeniable presence of AIDS in American art.
Lecture | Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Unit 371 with Author MK Czerwiec
DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton
Thursday, March 30, 6:30-8:30 pm
Comics have a long history in the arenas of public health messaging, political activism and memoir. Comics can bear witness to stigmatized realities, create a new medium for representation and inspire community engagement and empowerment. This lecture will contextualize MK Czerwiec's new graphic memoir Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 within the history of comics about HIV and AIDS.
Exhibition | One day this kid will get larger
DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton
Closing April 2
A group exhibition of emerging contemporary artists who address the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic in North America through the lens of childhood, education, popular culture and race, this exhibition was guest curated by Danny Orendorff and is presented concurrently with Art AIDS America.
For a complete and up-to-date listing of our programs, including off-site venue information and pricing, visit our digital calendar ArtAIDSAmericaChicago.org/events
UPCOMING EXHIBITION AT ALPHAWOOD GALLERY:
Dorothea Lange, Turlock, California, May 2, 1942
Then They Came for Me.
Incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII and the Demise of Civil Liberties
Opening June 2017
Then They Came for Me will examine a difficult and painful episode in the history of the United States when the federal government forcibly removed and imprisoned thousands of American citizens without due process simply for being born Japanese American. Through an exploration of art, artifacts and programming, Then They Came for Me will invite comparisons between this dark chapter in America's past and current political events. The exhibition will be free and open to the public.
