About the artist:

Vincent William Gagliostro joined the New York art world in 1972, studying at Parsons School of Design. He divided his time between the disciplines of graphic design and painting. He had his first solo show in Washington, D.C., in 1976. A few years later, a growing health crisis in New York’s gay community would change things enormously. In 1987, Gagliostro was an original member of ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a group which would successfully position the burgeoning AIDS health crisis as a political crisis as well. He chaired the Outreach Committee. Gagliostro was noted in New York magazine (September 30, 1996) for his “in your face” graphic, “make no apologies” style. He was also identified in that same issue as one of the six most influential players in the gay community of the time. Also in that article Andrew Sullivan defined ACT UP as “a new, distinctively gay kind of activism…The politics of style.” Gagliostro had his first exhibition in Europe, in Hanover, Germany, in 1997. What was significant about that exhibition is that due to differences of opinion about what to include led Gagliostro on a path to begin making video works. He thus proffered his first video work When Did I Forget?, a reflection his politics at the time of the exhibit. “I came to realize the defining effect my work as a political activist had — and continues to have — on my work as a visual artist." In the late 90s Gagliostro and three friends created a quarterly journal, xxxFRUIT, which was also commissioned by the Whitney Museum for an on-line version. He was also the creative director of QW, a New York weekly gay news magazine. Recently his focus has been on multi-media installations with an emphasis on film and video. His films have been shown most recently in film festivals such as Fringe! Gay Film Festival, London; ASVOFF at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Cannes, Barcelona and New York; The New York Armory Show; Pulse Art Fair and Scope, New York. His most recent exhibition (1)Case, was in Paris 2010. Gagliostro has completed the script for his first feature film, After Louie, which he will direct. Solo Exhibitions 2012 The White Cubicle Toilet Gallery, London, England 2010 Gallery NeC, Paris, France 2008 Beauty Room, Paris, France 2007 Gallery NeC, Paris, France 2006 Gallery NeC, Paris, France 1997 Kleine Gallery, Hanover, Germany 1996 KRT Space, New York, NY 1994 Artist's Exchange, Weston, Connecticut 1987 Artist's Exchange, New York, NY 1982 Artist's Exchange, New York, NY 1978 Wood/Waeche Gallery, Washington DC 1976 Polo Drescher Gallery, Washington DC Group Exhibitions 2012 CAIXAFORUM BARCELONA, ASVOFF 4,| Barcelona, Spain 2011 Art Basel Miami, ASVOFF Screening, Miami, Florida Cannes Film Festival, ASVOFF Screening, Cannes, France Centre Pompidou, ASVOFF FESTIVAL 4, Paris, France 2010 Centre Pompidou, ASVOFF FESTIVAL 3, Paris, France 2008 Guggenheim, ASVOFF FESTIVAL 1, Bilbao, Spain Jeu de Paume, ASVOFF 1, Paris, France Pulse Art Fair, New York, NY 2007 Art Basel Miami, Passport No., Miami, Florida Gallery NeC, Paris, France 2006 Gallery NeC, Paris, France 2003 Bergdorf Gallery, New York, NY 2000 Whitney Museum, New York, NY 1999 The New Museum, New York, NY 1997 Cooper Hewitt, New York, NY 1996 Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England 1995 Jacklight Gallery, New York, NY 1994 Museum of Sociology, Dresden, Germany New York Public Library, New York, NY 1993 Munich State Museum, Munich, Germany The New Museum, New York, NY 1991 "Bilderschock", Berlin, Germany 1990 Bullet Space, New York, NY Center for Book Arts, New York, NY Kettler Yard Gallery, London, England Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 1987 Jayne H. Baum Gallery, New York, NY 1986 The Glass Farmhouse, New York, NY 1985 The Glass Farmhouse, New York, NY 1983 Artist's Exchange, New York, NY Collections Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York NY Library of Congress, Washington DC Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Modern Art, New York New York Public Library, New York NY Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England Wellcome Trust, Great Britain Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY Avram Finkelstein, American Avram Finkelstein is an artist, writer, gay rights activist, and member of the AIDS art collective Gran Fury. Finkelstein describes himself as a "red diaper baby", raised by leftist parents who encouraged him to develop an interest in radical politics. He began by protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and has worked on many activist causes, including The Student Mobilization Committee, The Poor People's Campaign, The Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, and was a founding member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT-UP. In 1986, Finkelstein was co-founder of the group Silence=Death Project, which created the "Silence=Death" anti-AIDS logo to combat institutional silence surrounding homophobia and HIV/AIDS, later donated to ACT-UP. In 1994, in preparation for the Gay Games in New York City, he wrote a tract for ACT-UP, entitled "Welcome to New York", which asked gay men and lesbians who attended the games and other festivities surrounding the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots to take action to stop the AIDS epidemic. Finkelstein has covered art & culture for Artwrit, Italian Vogue, Dazed and Confused, Visionaire, Pride, Genre, Van and Dune. With Gran Fury, he collaborated on public awareness campaigns and public art projects for publications, museums and foundations including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Venice Biennale, ArtForum, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Creative Time, and The Public Art Fund. Finkelstein has been interviewed about art, activism and communication in the public sphere by publications including The New York Times and Interview.[citation needed], and spoken at Harvard, Exit Art, Fordham, RISD, MassArt, The School of Visual Arts and CUNY.