To Love—To Die: Art and Activism in the Time of AIDS
Overview
Recognized as the Best in Visual Arts at the 2025 POZ Awards, To Love—To Die; To Fight. To Live: Art and Activism in the Time of AIDS was a major historical and contemporary survey exhibition presented at the SVA Flatiron Gallery. Jointly presented by SVA Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost, the exhibition commemorated all forms of art-based activism 40 years after the initial idea for the iconic AIDS Memorial Quilt was conceived in 1985. The project honored those who organized and fought for their survival, dignity, and respect in the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic while connecting those histories directly to contemporary creative resistance.
Project Context & Curatorial Role
As Co-Organizer alongside Michael Severance, I helped lead curatorial partnerships, archival loans, and video programming, bringing together institutional loans from the National AIDS Memorial, the Estate of David Wojnarowicz, P·P·O·W, Visual AIDS, and the SVA Archives.
The gallery presented multiple large-scale "blocks"—each holding eight historic AIDS Memorial Quilt panels—on loan from the National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco. These were displayed alongside original activist posters and ephemera from Gran Fury, Visual AIDS Day With(out) Art broadsides, and historic student-created rally flyers produced at SVA between 1988 and 1994.
Role: Exhibition Advisor & Co-Organizer, with Michael Severance, SVA
Date: March 20—April 5, 2025
Location: SVA Flatiron Gallery, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
