PPOW’s recent exhibition, “Promiscuous Rage,” curated by the gallery, presents a compelling juxtaposition of works by Berlin-based Dean Sameshima and late activist-artist Hunter Reynolds. The exhibition delves into the complex and often contradictory ways in which the HIV/AIDS epidemic has shaped queer identity and memory.
One of the central pieces in the exhibition is Sameshima’s “Anonymous Illness” (2024), a painting that starkly proclaims the words without explicitly naming the disease it refers to. This deliberate ambiguity stands in sharp contrast to Reynolds’s “Quilt of Names (panel 2)” (1992), which explicitly names the victims of AIDS through documentation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The juxtaposition of these two works highlights the tension between anonymity and visibility, personal and political memory in the context of the epidemic.
Reynolds, a member of ACT UP, used his art as a form of activism to challenge the erasure of AIDS victims and the state’s official memory culture. His works, such as “Ray Navarro’s Bed of Mourning Flowers” (1990/2018) and “Felix Bead Curtain” (2018), pay tribute to individual experiences of loss and mourning within the broader context of the epidemic.
On the other hand, Sameshima’s abstract works, like “Anonymous Berlin Stories” and “Anonymous Blue Movie” (2024), offer a more enigmatic exploration of queer experience and memory. These pieces, inspired by his visits to gay porn theaters in Berlin, blur the lines between personal biography and collective history.
The exhibition also features Reynolds’s “Moon Over Gerhard (FTL Bear Daddy Beach)” (2004), a series of abstract photographs that capture the essence of cruising and utopian desire. Through his lens, Reynolds transforms mundane urban landscapes into sites of queer longing and possibility.
Hunter Reynolds / Dean Sameshima: Promiscuous Rage is on display at PPOW in Tribeca, Manhattan, until January 25, 2025. This thought-provoking exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the complexities of queer memory, identity, and activism in the shadow of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
