GRAN FURY: Read My Lips, curated by Gran Fury and Michael Cohen
January 31 - March 17, 2012
opening reception: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 from 6 - 8 pm
Press Release
80WSE is proud to announce the opening of "Gran Fury: Read My Lips," the first comprehensive survey documenting the important AIDS activist art collective's work from 1987-1995.
Naming itself after the model of Plymouth automobile used by the New York City Police Department, Gran Fury made public projects that were simultaneously scathing, provocative, stylish and often quite funny. This exhibition conveys the collective's unique voice across a wide variety of media including billboards, postcards, video, posters and painting. Photographs and records from the period help convey the urgency of the early AIDS crisis that lead many into the streets to demand reforms that changed public policy and saved lives.
Gran Fury's work raised public awareness of AIDS and put pressure on politicians, while sparking debate in sites ranging from the Illinois Senate to the tabloid press of Italy. Bridging the gap between Situationist site-specific art strategies, post-modern appropriation and the Queer activist movement, Gran Fury has been influential to later practitioners. Their work opens up a broader spectrum of understanding about the political and collective art practices that flourished in downtown New York during the Eighties and Nineties.
To read the complete Press Release, please click here.
Broadway Windows
Power Animal Systems an installation by Jason Martin
October 1st , 2011 - January 14th, 2012
Washington Square Windows
Gran Fury
a special Windows exhibition in conjuction with Gran Fury: Read My Lips in 80wse's main space
January 31 - March 17, 2012
Gallery 8
Alice Wang
01.31-03.17.2012