AIDS Activist Graphics & Lesbian Visibility: A Conversation Between Ksenia M. Soboleva and Marlene McCarty

The AIDS crisis activated one of the most highly effective artist-driven political movements of the 20th century. Activist artist collectives such as Gran Fury appropriated advertising strategies and seductive graphic styles to disseminate information, create visibility, and draw attention to the political nature of the epidemic. Poster House is pleased to host a conversation between art historian Ksenia M. Soboleva and artist Marlene McCarty, a core member of Gran Fury, to explore the ways in which lesbian identity was navigated and represented in the collective’s work, as well as in McCarty’s personal studio practice. 

Dr. Ksenia M. Soboleva is a New York based writer and art historian specializing in queer art and culture. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, with a dissertation on art, AIDS, and lesbian identity in the United States. Currently, she is working on the book project Friendship as a Way of Art: Queer Identity and Visual Citation and is co-editing the first monograph of the queer 1990s gallery Trial BALLOON (forthcoming with Karma). Soboleva is a regular contributor to the Brooklyn Rail and BOMB magazine, and her writing has appeared in various exhibition catalogues and artist monographs. She teaches at the New School and NYU.

Marlene McCarty is an artist, designer, and activist who lives and works in NYC. She studied and was apprenticed at the once-renowned Kunstgewerbeschule Basel: Grafikfachklasse. McCarty was a member of the AIDS activist collective Gran Fury, co-founder of the transdisciplinary design studio, Bureau, and has exhibited globally as an artist since the 1990s. She is represented by the Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Gallery and is professor of Visual Arts at NYU Steinhardt. Her work is in the collections of major institutions, including the Brooklyn Museum, Kunsthaus Zürich, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Accessibility Note: This online event will be livestreamed on YouTube. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Automated closed captioning will be provided. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) are available upon request. 

Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event related questions, please contact info@posterhouse.org.