AVRAM FINKELSTEIN

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.

Founding Member of The Silence=Death collective.

Founding Member of Gran Fury.

2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient

2022-23 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program recipient

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 Dedications, New York City AIDS Memorial, public art installation, New York, NY (Curator: Dave Harper)(upcoming)

2018      You Care About HIV Criminalization, You Just Don't Know It Yet, public intervention Visual AIDS, New York (Curators: Esther McGowan and Alex Fialho).

2013       Lifelines: Recent Work by Avram Finkelstein, Harbor Gallery, UMass, MA (Curator: Aaron Lecklider). 

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 As the World Burns: Queer Photography and Nightlife in Boston, Jan 25- April 24, 2024, Tufts University Art Galleries at SMFA, Jan 25 to April 24, 2024, Boston,

MA (Curator: Jackson Davidow)(upcoming)

2021 Queer Ecology Hanky Project, Eureka!, Kingston, NY, (Organized by Vanessa Adams and Mary Tremonte)

More Life, David Zwirner, New York, June 24- August 6 (Curator: Alec Smyth)

HARM REDUCTION IS NOT A METAPHOR: Living in the 21st Century with Drugs, Intimacy, and Activism, MoMA PS 1, LIC, (Curator: Visual AIDS)

2020  This Is America, Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort, NL (Curator: Robbert Roos)

Wicked, 2020 Queer Arts Festival, Vancouver, BC (Curated by Jonny Sopotiuk)

Tinworks Art 2020, Story Mill Art, Bozeman, MT (Curated by Melissa Ragain and Eli Ridgway)

When We First Arrived, The Corner at Whitman-Walker, Washington, D.C. (Curator: Ruth Noack)

DYKWTCA (Do You Know Where The Children Are), online project, (Curators: Mary Ellen Carroll and Lucas Michael) (upcoming)

2019 Made at The New York Public Library, New York Public Library, New York (Curator: Jason Baumann)

United by AIDS—An Exhibition about Loss, Remembrance, Activism and Art in Response to HIV/AIDS, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (Curator

Dr. Raphael Gygax)

VISUAL IMPACT: ON ART, AIDS, AND ACTIVISM, NYC AIDS Memorial (Curators Keith Fox, David Breslin, Esther McGowan)

21st Century Liberation, public project for Visual AIDS (Curators: Esther McGowan, Alex Fiahlo, Kyle Croft)

Open Call, The Shed, New York (Curator: Emma Enderby)

Violet Holdings, Fales Library, New York (Curator: Hugh Ryan)

2018     Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy, Metroplitan Museum, New York (Curators Ian Alteveer and Doug Eklund)

              Cast of Characters, BGSQD, New York (Curator: Liz Collins)

              Queering Space, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred (Curators: Loren Britton, Christie DeNizio, Sara Ferguson, Asad Pervaiz, Res and Erica Wessmann)

2017     An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017, Whitney Museum, New York (Curator: David Breslin)

             AIDS at Home, Museum of the City of New York, New York (Curator: Stephen Vider) 
    
             The Times, FLAG Art Foundation, New York
    
             The Work of Imagining: Art in the Age of "Apocalypse," Jack Theater, Brooklyn, NY, (Curators: Shanté Smalls and Jesse Phillips-Fein) 

2016     Mentors, CFHILL, Stockholm, (Curator: Rick Herron)

              Everyday, La Mama Galleria, New York (Curators: Jean Carlomusto, Alexandra Juhasz and Hugh Ryan)

2015     AIDS - Based on a True Story / Nach einer wahren Begebenheit, Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum (Curator: Vladimir Čajkovac)

              Disobedient Objects, MAAS Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo, NSW

             positive/negative: HIV/AIDS, Tracey/Barry Gallery, Fales Library, NY (Curator: Brent Phillips)

             Precocious: Minor Works from the Fales Collection, Tracey/Barry Gallery, Fales Library, NY (Curator: Lisa Darms)

             How Posters Work, The Cooper Hewitt  Museum, New York, NY (Curator: Ellen Lupton) (catalogue)

2014     Disobedient Objects, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (catalogue)

2013     Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism, The New York Public Library, New York, NY (Curator: Jason Baumann)        

             I, YOU, WE, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (Curator: David Kiehl)

             Art/Activism, Clifford Chance, New York, NY (Curator: Jacob Robichaux)

2012     Xtravaganza: Staging Leigh Bowery, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (Curator: Angela Stief)

2011     Not Over, Visual AIDS, New York, NY (Curator: Nelson Santos)

            The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History, Leslie Lohman Museum, New York, NY (Curators:  Buzz Slutzky and Hugh Ryan)

            Mixed Messages, La MaMa La Galleria, New York, NY (Curator: John Chaich)

            Unpunished, Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY (Curator: Nayland Blake)

2010     Alternative Histories, Exit Art, New York, NY (Curators: Herb Tam, Lauren Rosati, Papo Colo, and Jeanette Ingberman)

2008     The Guys We Would Fuck, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY (Curator: Nayland Blake)

1996     Design on the Street: Mixing Messages in Public Space, Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, NY (catalogue)

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS/PUBLIC PROJECTS WITH GRAN FURY/ SILENCE=DEATH

2021 More Life, David Zwirner, New York, June 24- August 6 (Curator: Alec Smyth)

2019 Queer Forms, Katherine E. Nash Gallery Minneapolis, MN (Curator: Howard Oransky)

United by AIDS—An Exhibition about Loss, Remembrance, Activism and Art in Response to HIV/AIDS, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (Curator

Dr. Raphael Gygax)

VISUAL IMPACT: ON ART, AIDS, AND ACTIVISM, NYC AIDS Memorial (Curators Keith Fox, David Breslin, Esther McGowan)

RIOT, mural commission, LGBT Center, New York

Art After Stonewall, Grey Art Gallery (Curators Jonathan Weinberg, Tyler Cann, and Drew Sawyers)

In A Few Words, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

2018      The 50 State Initiative, billboard for For Freedoms, Norfolk, VA (Curator: For Freedoms)

Still I Rise: feminisms, gender, resistance, Nottingham Contemporary, London (Curators: Rosie Cooper, Irene Aristizabal and Cedric Fauq)

               Read My Lips, AutoItalia, London, (Curators: Gran Fury)

               Germ City, Microbes and the Metropolis,  Museum of the City of New York.

               Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy, Metroplitan Museum, New York (Curators Ian Alteveer and Doug Eklund)

               An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940-2017, Whitney Museum, New York (Curator: David Breslin)

               Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s, The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC (Curator: Gianni Jetzer)

2017      Get with the Action, Political Posters from the 1960s to Now, SFMOMA, San Francisco (Curator: Joseph Becker)

               Queer Power, Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York (Curator: Gonzalo Casals) 

               VOICE = SURVIVAL, The 8th Floor, NY (Curators: Claudia Maria Carrera and Adrian Geraldo  Saldaña) 

2016      Art AIDS America, Bronx Museum, (Curators: Jonathan David Katz and Rock Hushka) 

              Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX

2015     Agitprop! Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.

              When Artists Speak Truth, The 8th Floor, NY (Curator: Sara Reisman)

              AIDS - Based on a True Story / Nach einer wahren Begebenheit, Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum (Curator: Vladimir Čajkovac)

               Art AIDS America, Tacoma Art Museum. Tacoma, WA (Curators: Jonathan David Katz and Rock Hushka) 

             Tongues Untied, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.

2014     8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Shenzhen, China.

             Pictures, Before and After – An Exhibition for Douglas Crimp, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, Germany

2013     LOVE AIDS RIOT SEX 1: Art AIDS Activism 1987-1995, Neue Gesellschaft, Berlin (Curator: Frank Wagner) (catalogue)

            Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism, The New York Public Library, New York, NY (Curator: Jason Baumann) 

2012    Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY (Curators: Mark Rosenthal, and Marla Prather)

             This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (Curator: Helen Molesworth) (catalogue)

            ACT UP (GRAN FURY) SILENCE=DEATH, The New Museum, New York, NY

            Gran Fury, Read My Lips, 80WSE, New York, NY (Curators: Gran Fury and Michael Jacob Cohen) (catalogue)

2010     Alternative Histories, Exit Art, New York, NY (Curators: Herb Tam, Lauren Rosati, Papo Colo, and Jeanette Ingberman)

            ACT UP NEW YORK: ACTIVISM, ART, AND THE AIDS CRISIS, 1987-1993, White   

            Pilot Light, FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France (Curator: Lumi Tan)

2009    ACT UP NEW YORK: ACTIVISM, ART, AND THE AIDS CRISIS, 1987-1999, The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA (Curator: Helen Molesworth)

            Tainted Love, La Mama La Galleria, New York, NY (Curator: Steven Lam and Virginia Solomon)

            Several Silences, The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2003     Crimes and Misdemeanors-Politics in the U.S. Art of the 1980's, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH

2001     A Work in Progress-Selections from the New Museum Collection, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY

1999     Billboard: Art on the Road, Sited public project, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA

1994     Don't Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS, National Gallery of Australia, Parkes, Canberra, Australia. (catalogue)

1992     Pour la Suite de Monde, Musée dí art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Canada (catalogue)

            Love For Sale, Free Condoms Inside, with P.O.N.Y., Window installation, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY

1990     XLIV Espoizione Internazionale dí arte, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (catalogue)

            Commitment, Power Plant Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

            Images & Words: Artists respond to AIDS, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA

            AIDS/SIDA, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

            Do Nothing, Sited public project, Petrosino Park, New York, NY (Curated by   REPOHistory)

1989     Image World, Art and Media Culture, Window installation and sited public project, Whitney Museum, New York, NY (catalogue)

            Art Against AIDS, On the Road, Traveling public project, Livet Reichard/AmFAR, New York, NY (Curator: Ann Philbin) (catalogue)

            Art Is Not Enough, Sited public project, The Kitchen, New York, NY

            All People With AIDS are Innocent, Traveling public project, Creative Time, New York,  NY

            Kissing Doesn’t Kill, Greed and Indifference Do, Traveling public project, Creative Time, New York, NY

1987     Let The Record Show, Window installation, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (Curator: Bill Olander)

 

CURATORIAL

2021    OMNISCIENT: Queer Documentation in an Image Culture, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, June 18, 2021 - Jan 02, 2022

Public Art Series, Playwrights Horizons, New York, Jan 19- September 30, 2021 (Co-curated with David Zinn)

2019    On The (Queer) Waterfront, co-curated with High Ryan, Brooklyn Historical Society

2017     FOUND: Queerness as Archaeology, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, June 7 – September 10, 2017

2016     Squatting on Stonewall, (co-curated with Hugh Ryan), Vice Magazine, December 2016 

 

TEACHING AND WORKSHOPS

2019    Art and Ideas: What is Social Practice Art?, Fall Semester, Department of Art and Art Professions, New York University Steinhardt, New York, NY

2017    Flash Collective Workshop, NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY

            Arts of Intervention: Social Practices in Public Spaces, NYU Gallatin School, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, SUNY Purchase, Purchase NY

2016    Viral Divide Flash Collective, Visual AIDS/Bronx Museum/Equity Fights AIDS/GMHC, New York, NY

            Emerge NYC workshop, NYU/Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY

            Navigating the Border of Fashion and Art, NYUSPS, New York, NY

2015    Flash Collective Workshop, NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY

            Flash Collective, New Museum Ideas City/Visual AIDS, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, EmergeNYC, The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, NYU, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, New School, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, Tufts/SMFA, Medford, MA

2014    Flash Collective Workshop, NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, The HIV Is Not A Crime Conference, Grinnell, Iowa

            Flash Collective Workshop, The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, The New York Public Library, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, The New York Public Library, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, The New York Public Library, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, Helix Queer Performance Network, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, Helix Queer Performance Network, New York, NY

            Flash Collective Workshop, Helix Queer Performance Network, New York, NY

            Flash Collective WorkshopCentre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence, Concordia University, Montreal

            SFMOMA Visual Activism Conference, Workshop, Collective Cultural Production, San Francisco, CA,

2012    NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY, Guest teacher, three workshops

            NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY, Graduate student studio visits

            NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY, Teach-in for Arts and Labor, Occupy Wall Street

2009    CUNY Graduate Program in Environmental Psychology, New York, NY, Thesis review

 

LECTURES/PANELS/ARTIST TALKS

2021 "Locating AIDS in the 21st Century Image Landscape," keynote, Rochester University, March 16, 2022

"OMINSCIENT: Queer Documentation in an Image Culture", lecture, Social Practice Cuny, Oct 25, 2021

"OMINSCIENT: Queer Documentation in an Image Culture", lecture, NYU Steinhart, Dec 1 2021

World AIDS Day Grand Rounds, Columbia University, Dec 2, 2021

"Conversation between Avram Finkelstein, curator of 'OMNISCIENT: Queer Documentation in an Image Culture' with artists Camilo Godoy and

Omar Mismar, Judd Foundation and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art Nov 16th, 2021

“The AIDS Crisis and Queer Activist Art,(“ with Julie Ault, Douglas Crimp, Lyle Ashton Harris, AA Bronson, Lia Gangitano and Sur Rodney Sur),

Articulated podcast, Smithsomian Museum, NOVEMBER 1, 2021

"The Twenty-First Century Image Dilemma", lecture, Middlebury College, Nov 11, 2021

"Art and AIDS Activism," (with Sarah Schulman), The Wolfsonian at FIU, Sept. 8, 2021

2020 "HIV/AIDS:ACTIVISM AND POSTERS" (with Ian Bradley-Perrin), Poster House, June 29, 2020

2019 Public Art Fund: Public Art and Activism: 1980s to Today, with Joy Episalla, Paola Mendoza, Nicholas Baume, Cooper Union, New York, NY

The Stonewall Reader: Reading and Panel, Hemispheric Institute, New York, NY

Re-Stating the Union, For Freedoms/ICP Museum, New York, NY

Remembering the Dead, The New York Academy of Medicine, New York NY

2018   Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic, Smithsonian's Archives of American Art/Whitney Museum (with Ted Kerr, Alexandra Juhasz , Sur Rodney

(Sur), James Wentzy.)

            Critical Jamming Round Table, International Center of Photography Museum

            Artist talk, International Center of Photography, New York, NY

           Book Talk, Open Society Foundations Narrative Change Community of Practice, New, NY

2017   Otis School of Art and Design, reading from After Silence: A History of AIDS through Its Images, UC Press.

           Leslie-Lohman Museum, reading from After Silence: A History of AIDS through Its Images, UC Press.

           Book talk, After Silence: A History of AIDS through Its Images, Rizzolli Books, New York, NY

           Pioneer Works, Creative Time, Yes Labs, NY, WTF Do We Do Now?, with Frances Fox Piven, Molly Crabapple. Occupy Museums, Caroline Woolard, and    

           others.

           Artists Space, NY, In the Last Instance, discussion/documentation with Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Joshua Lubin-Levy, Aliza Shvarts

           Yale University Law School Human Rights workshop, Fire With Fire: Resistance in an Image Culture

           Artist talk, Viral Representation: On AIDS and Art Conference, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

            College Art Association, AIDS and Cultural Activism,: Dismantling the Dominant AIDS Narrative Through its Images

           Daniel Cooney Gallery, Articulating the Opposition, invited panelist.

            Whitney Museum, J20 Art Strike, curated by Occupy Museums, Invited speaker.

2016    The Knockdown Center, curated by Ashton Cooper, Read My Lips, On Queer Abstraction.

           Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Who Owns the History of AIDS?

2015    Interface Archive, NY, Panel, Solidarity, Distribution, Design: The Poster Today.

           The Museum of the City of New York, Panel, Posters + Politics, The Art of Activism in New York

2014    SUNY Purchase, White Plains, NY, World AIDS Day Artist talk

            New School, New York, NY, Panel, How Art & Design Activism Changed AIDS for You, and How It Still Can

            Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, Panel, Gran Fury and Fierce Pussy

            San Francisco, CA, SFMOMA Visual Activism Conference, Panel, Queer Tactics

 New York, NY, Visual AIDS and the New York Public Library (part of Art, AIDS and Representation—Public Conversations), Panel,Your Nostalgia Is Killing Me: Catalyst For Conversation About Aids And Visual Culture

            New York, NY, Visual AIDS and the New York Public Library, Panel, Why We Fight

            Performa 13, Performa Hub, New York, NY, Panel, Karol Radziszewski Kisieland

            New York, Visual AIDS, Flash Collectives: Creating Agile Strategies for Social Change

 ViiV Healthcare, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Concordia University, Montreal,Guest speaker, Collective Queer Cultural Production, AIDS and the Public Sphere

2013    New York Public Library, New York, NY, Panel, Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism

            Clifford Chance, New York, NY, Invited speaker, Art/Activism (Curator: Jacob Robichaux)

            Parsons/New School, New York, NY, Artist talk, Art & Social Engagement

            U Mass Boston, Boston, MA, Artist talk, Art & Activism

2012    NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY, Panel, Media Impact: International Festival of Activist Art

            Columbia University, New York, NY, Panel, Art &  Politics: Discussion with Helen Molesworth and Gran Fury

            NYU/CUNY, New York, NY, Panel, The Lavender Left, Part I: Homosexuality and Radicalism in 20th-Century U.S.

            Parsons, New York, NY, Invited lecturer, Art and Social Engagement

            NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY, Panel, Read My Lips

2011    The Life Ball, Vienna, Austria, Invited speaker, Opening Ceremony, (with Bill Clinton, Vivienne Westwood, Janet Jackson, Michel Sidibé).

2010    MassArt, Boston, MA, Artist talk, Dynamic Media Center

            MassArt, Boston, MA, Guest speaker at the opening of The Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of AIDS Awareness Posters

            School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, Panel, Super Hero... Not Super Human: Artists Working for Change in the Real

            Exit Art, New York, NY, Panel, Activism and the Rise of Alternative Art Spaces

2009    Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Opening Panel, ACT UP NEW YORK: ACTIVISM, ART, AND THE AIDS CRISIS, 1987-1993

 CUNY Graduate School/Visual AIDS, New York, NY, Perform the Change You Want to See in the World,Street Theater, and HIV Prevention Justice Activism

            Fordham Law School, New York, NY, Artist talk, Art, Appropriation and the First Amendment.

2008     Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, Artist talk

            CUNY Graduate Program in Environmental Psychology, New York, NY, Lecture, On Documenting Desire

   

PUBLICATIONS AS AUTHOR

2022 “The Pope, The Penis, and the Phone” frieze, April 2022 (upcoming)

2021 “BOMB Retrospective: On “Gran Fury by Robert Gober,” BOMB, July 2021

“PACIFICO SILANO: Text by Avram Finkelstein,” Foam Magazine #59: Histories – The Archival Issue, Summer, 2021

2020 “OMNISCIENT: Queer Documentation in an Image Culture,” The Archive, Issue 68: Intersectionality, 2020

“Larry Kramer Fought Back,” frieze, June 20, 2020

2019 “AIDS, Coca-Cola, and the Tompkins Square Park Riot,” Issue 42, OnCurating, August 2019 (ed. Theodore (ted) Kerr)

“The Intrinsic Openness of the Hive Mind,” Art21, Sep 12, 2019

2018   "Resistance in an Image Culture," introduction for Posters for Change, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2018

            "NYU Flash Collective: An Art Intervention in the Public Sphere," with Dipti Desai for ART AS SOCIAL ACTION: An Introduction to the Principles

& Practices of  Teaching Social Practice Art, Gregory Sholette, Chloë Bass, and Social Practice Queens

2017   "After Silence: A History of AIDS through Its Images," Avram Finkelstein, University of California Press, Berkeley.

           "A Propagandist's Guide to Twenty-first Century Image Literacy," Visual Inquiry: Learning & Teaching Art, Vol 6 No 2, Intellect Journals, 2017        

          " Queer Form," ASAP Journal, edited by Kadji Amin, Amber Musser, and Roy Perez, Johns Hopkins University Press, May 2017"

          " Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community," conversation with L.j.Roberts, edited by John Chaich and Todd Oldham, April 1, 2017

           "AIDS 2.0," Panta: Creative Culture & Activism, Issue 11, Summer Autumn 2017

           "FOUND: Queer Archaeology; Queer Abstraction, "The Archive, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Spring 2017

           "Political Engagement and Flash Collectivity," Mentors cataloge, CFHill Gallery, January 2017

2014     "A Normal Heart Viewing Party: Two Generations of Gay Men Watch the Past Turn Into the Future on HBO," Playbill, May 27, 2014

            "Past & Present, Art & Activism: The Silence=Death Poster," Zeek Magazine, December1, 2014

            "Why We Fight," Annotation of Vito Russo speech for Genius.com, October 29, 2014

            "Women Don't Get Aids, They Just Die From It," Guest blogger for The New York Public Library  

            "Welcome to New York," Guest blogger for The New York Public Library   

            "Read My Lips," Guest blogger for The New York Public Library   

            "The Government Has Blood on its Hands," Guest blogger for The New York PublicLibrary   

2013     "The Silence=Death Poster," Guest blogger for The New York Public Library

            "The Body Electric: Selections from The Pop-Up Museum Of Queer History Archive," New York Arts Magazine, Spring 2013 Issue           

2012 ­    "'More Love' For Mike Kelley," Criticalmob.com

            "The Ungovernables Triennial At The New Museum." Criticalmob.com

            "Ai Weiwei’s Perpectives At Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery­­­," Criticalmob.com

            "Anish Kapoor At Gladstone Gallery," Criticalmob.com

            "Armory Arts Week Begins," Criticalmob.com

            "Artists’ Holograms At The New Museum," Criticalmob.com

            "Cindy Sherman," Criticalmob.com

            "Cindy Sherman At Moma," Criticalmob.com

            "Come Back New," Criticalmob.com

            "Critical Questions: Amy Sillman," Interview, Criticalmob.com

            "Damien Hirst Launches Live Feed Art Porn," Criticalmob.com

            "Daphne Guinness," (Exhibition) Criticalmob.com

            "Day And Pfahler’s Garden Of Earthly Delights," Criticalmob.com

            "December," (Exhibition) Criticalmob.com

            "De Kooning: A Retrospective," Criticalmob.com

            "Doing Unspeakable Things To James Franco," Criticalmob.com

            "Donald Moffett: The Radiant Future," Criticalmob.com

            "Draw Me: Art, Idols And Primetime," Essay, Criticalmob.com

            "Edvard Munch At The Tate," Criticalmob.com

            "F-111," Criticalmob.com

            "Fit To Print," Criticalmob.com

            "Franco Brings Psychic To New Museum," Criticalmob.com

            "Frieze New York Survival Kit," Criticalmob.com

            "Gehard Demetz: Threshold Space," Criticalmob.com

            "Georg Baselitz," (Exhibition) Criticalmob.com

            "Ghosts In The Machine At The New Museum," Criticalmob.com

            "Gilbert And George’s London Takeover," Criticalmob.com

            "Hide/Seek: Difference And Desire In American Portraiture," Criticalmob.com

            "Independent Art Fair At Dia," Criticalmob.com

            "Investigations Of A Dog," Criticalmob.com

            "Ipad As Medium: High Culture Meets High Tech," Criticalmob.com

            "James Franco’s Rebel Opens At Moca," Criticalmob.com

            "Jeff Koons To Teach In NYC Public Schools," Criticalmob.com

            "Josephine Meckseper’s Oil Pumps At The Last Lot," Criticalmob.com

            "Jules De Balincourt’s Bushwick Basel," Criticalmob.com

            "Keith Haring: 1978–1982," Criticalmob.com

            "Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present," (Documentary) Criticalmob.com

            "Michael Bilsborough: Austerity Measures," Criticalmob.com

            "Nan Goldin Awarded Lifetime Achievement," Criticalmob.com

            "Obama’s Calls For Arts Funding Increases," Criticalmob.com

            "Pharma at Cooper Union, " Criticalmob.com

            "Photo Of The Day: Allen Ginsberg And Brendan Behan," Criticalmob.com

            "Photo Of The Day: Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Still #21," Criticalmob.com

            "Photo Of The Day: Flag By Jasper Johns," Criticalmob.com

            "Pictures From The Moon: Artists’ Holograms 1969 – 2008," Criticalmob.com

            "Pussy Riot Held In Prison," Criticalmob.com

            "Pussy Riot In Prison," Criticalmob.com

            "Richard Avedon: Murals & Portraits," Criticalmob.com

            "Richard Prince: Fourteen Paintings," Criticalmob.com

            "Salvador Dali Stolen From Upper East Side Gallery," Criticalmob.com

            "Seven Arts Fair Comes To Williamsburg," Criticalmob.com

            "Sharon Hayes: There’s So Much I Want To Say To You," Criticalmob.com

            "Tennial," Criticalmob.com

            "The Armory Show 2012," Criticalmob.com

            "The Louvre’s Project Runway," Criticalmob.com

            "The Suffering Of Light: Thirty Years Of Images," Criticalmob.com

            "The Tate’s Olympic Posters," Criticalmob.com

            "The Ungovernables: 2012 New Museum Triennial," Criticalmob.com

            "The Week In Culture, June 23 - June 30," Criticalmob.com

            "The Week In Culture: July 14 - July 21," Criticalmob.com

            "The Week In Culture: June 2- June 9," Criticalmob.com

            "The Week In Culture: June 28 - August 4," Criticalmob.com

            "The Week In Culture: June 30 - July 7," Criticalmob.com

            "Week In Culture: May 28 To June 1," Criticalmob.com

            "Twombly Foundation Finds A Home In NYC," Criticalmob.com

             "AIDS 2.O, " Film review, Artwrit, December

2011     "Carsten Höller: Experience," Criticalmob.com                       

            "The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011," Criticalmob.com

            "Djed (Matthew Barney)," Criticalmob.com

            "Jim Hodges," (Exhibition) Criticalmob.com

            "Nan Goldin, Scopophilia," Criticalmob.com

            "Love Before Intimacy," Criticalmob.com

            "Profiled, by Ken Gonzales-Day," Book review and interview, Artwrit, June,

 "Every Little Move," (Ken Gonzales-Day, Lecia Dole-Recio, Eve Fowler, Luke Gilford,   Anna Sew Hoy, Vincent Cianni, Sean Gyshen Fennel), PRIDE, June

            "Speaking with Jonathan David Katz, Co-curator of Hide and Seek," Interview, Artwrit, May

2010     "Inside Out," (Guyton/Walker, Shannon Ebner, Jesse Aron Green, Nicole Eisenman, Erica Vogt), Hunter Reynolds, Dawn Kasper), PRIDE, June.

2009     Jiménez, Rafael M. Mérida, ed. Manifiestos gays, lesbianos y queer: Testimonios de una lucha (1969-1994), Icaria Editorial, 2009

  "Art, History," (Daphne Fitzpatrick, Matt Keegan, Karen Heagle, Matt Lipps, Dean Sameshima, TM Davy, Leidi Churchman), PRIDE, June

2008     "Tom Kalin," Interview, PRIDE, June  

            "There May Be No Such Thing As Queer Art," PRIDE, June  

2002     "Silence=Death, ACT UP and the Art of Activism," PRIDE, June

2001     "I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Feher & Sze at Bard," Northeast, August

1998     "Gallo's Humor," Interview, Genre, June.

             "hi vincent gallo," Interview, Van, Issue #23, May

            "Vincent Gallo, Un Renacentista en Nueva York," Vanidad, Issue #45, May

1997     "Avram Finkelstein speaks with Nan Goldin," Dune, Spring Issue #12

1995     "The Trouble with Angels: A Fantasia on the Meaning of Religious Themes," XXX Fruit, Summer Issue #1

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS AND JOURNALS

2018     Eklund,Doug, Alteveer, Ian, Saunders, Beth, Brown, Meredith, Lethem, Jonathan, Omsted, Kathryn Miller, John, Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy,       

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by Yale University Press, September 2018 (upcoming)

2017    Cooper, Ashton, Queer Abstraction: A Rountable with Loren Britton, Kerry Downey, John Edmonds, Mark Joshua Epstein, Avram Finkelstein, Chtira Ganesh,

            Glenalya Medina and Sheila Pepe, ASAP Journal, Johns Hopkins University Press, May 2017

2014     Roberts, Sam, A History of New York in 101 Objects, Simon & Schuster, 2014

2013     Lampert, Nicolas, A People's Art History of the United States: 250 Years of Activist Art and Artists Working in Social Justice Movements, New Press,  2013

2011     Reed, Christopher, Art and Homosexuality, A History of Ideas, Oxford University Press, 2011

2010     Resnick, Elizabeth and Cortés, Javier, Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters, MASS Art and Design, 2010                    

2005     Resnick, Elizabeth, Maviyane-Davies, Chaz and Baseman, Frank, The Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice  & the Environment,  

              1965- 2005, Massachusetts College of Art Foundation, 2005

2004    Leung, Simon and Kocur, Zoya, ed. Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985, Blackwell Publishing, 2004

            Boyer, David, KINGS AND QUEENS, Queers at the Prom, Soft Skull Press, 2004

2002     Meyer, Richard, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-   Century American Art (Ideologies of Desire), Oxford University Press, 2002

2000     Watney, Simon, Imagine Hope: AIDS and Gay Identity, Routledge, 2000

1999     Heon, Laura Steward; Diggs, Peggy; Thompson, Joseph, BILLBOARD, Art on the Road,  Mass Moca Publications, MIT Press, 1999

1997     Sandler, Irving, Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s, Westview Press; New Ed edition, 1997

1994     Edelman, Lee, Homographesis, essays in gay literary and cultural theory, Routledge,1994

1992     Jacobs, Karrie and Heller, Steven, Angry Graphics, Protest Posters of the Reagan/Bush Era, Peregrine Smith Books, 1992

1991     Fuss, Diana, Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, Routledge 1991

1990     Crimp, Douglas and Rolston, Adam, AIDS Demo Graphics, Seattle Bay Press, 1990

            O. Brien, Mark and Little, Craig eds. Reimaging America, the arts of social change, New Society Publishers, 1990

1989     Leigh, Christian, The Silent Baroque, Edition Thaddaeus Ropac, 1989

            Cater, Erica and Watney, Simon, ed. TAKING LIBERTIES, AIDS and Cultural Politics,  WBC Print (Bristol) LTD., 1989

  

SELECTED REVIEWS & PERIODICALS

2018     Waxman,  Olivia, “How the Nazi Regime's Pink Triangle Symbol Was Repurposed for LGBTQ Pride,” Time Magazine, May 31, 2018

             Schulman, Sarah, “When Protest Movements Became Brands,” New York Times Magazine, April 16, 2018

             Charles, Ron, “The Art of Protest,” By Washington Post, March 22, 2018

             Jackson Davidow, review, “After Silence,” Critical Inquiry, January 2018

2017     Miss Rosen, interview, “How to Spark Serious Social Change,” Huck, December 11, 2017

            Joseph Henry, review, “Queering Querr Abstraction,” The Brooklyn Rail, October 5, 2017

            Avram Finkelstein, book excerpt, “After Silence,” LitHub, December 1, 2017

            Alisa Soloman, “What Does It Mean To Remember AIDS?” The Nation, November 30, 2017

             Holland Cotter, review, “Art Once Shunned, Now Celebrated in ‘Found: Queer Archaeology; Queer Abstratcion’,” New York Times, August 23, 2017

             Editors, ARTnews, review, “‘The Times’ at FLAG Art Foundation,” July 10, 2017

             Theodore Kerr, “How Six NYC Activists Changed History with ‘Silence=Death’,” Village Voice, June 20, 2017

             Eric Westervelt, “ACT UP at 30: Reinvigorated for Trump Fight,” NPR, April 17, 2017

2016    James Emmerman, “After Orlando, the Iconic Silence = Death Image Is Back. Meet One of the Artists Who Created It,” Slate, July 13 2016  

            Katie Rogers, Two Men Kiss, an Act of Love and Activism,” June 16, 2016, New York Times

2015     Sami Emory, “Beyond the Pink Triangle: A New Generation Tackles HIV/AIDS Awareness”, Vice Magazine, Dec 1 2015

2014     Larry Buhl, "Undetectable Flash Collective: Undetectable, Not Invisible," A & U Magazine, December, 2014

2013     Alex McClelland, Geneviève Trudel, "Alex McClelland and Geneviève Trudel in conversation with Avram Finkelstein," Fuse Magazine,      

            September 19, 2013

            Peter Cocchia, "Avram Finkelstein fueled by notions of class, politics, family," Boston Globe, March 02, 2013

            June Wulff, "New Works, Old Themes," Boston Globe, February 18, 2013

­2012    Jennifer Kabat, "AIDS activism now and then – 25 years of ACT UP and Gran Fury," Frieze, Issue 149, September, 2012

            Douglas Crimp, "Gran Fury: Read My Lips," Artforum, January 2012.

            Martha Schwendener, "When Acting Up Meant Arting Up," The New York Times, February 2, 2012

            Steven Heller, "How AIDS Was Branded: Looking Back at ACT UP Design," The Atlantic, January 12, 2012

            "'Gran Fury: Read My Lips' Exhibit Documents AIDS Activist Art Collective's Work," The Huffington Post, January 30

            Christopher Harrity, "The Wit, Wisdom, and Rage of Gran Fury," The Advocate, February 04, 2012

            James Clementi, "Activism As Art: Gran Fury Gets A NYC Retrospective," Out Magazine, January 31, 2012

            Corbett, R. ,"80s Aids Activists, Gran Fury, Get Retro," Artnet, January 30, 2012

2011     Douglas Crimp, "Before Occupy: How AIDS Activists Seized Control of the FDA in 1988," The Atlantic, December 6, 2011

            d'Addario, John, "AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury," Hyperallergic

2006     Robert Sember and David Gere, PhDs, "'Let the Record Show . . .': Art Activism and the AIDS Epidemic," American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 96, No. 6, June

2006

2004     Roberta Smith, "Caution: Angry Artists at Work," New York Times, August 27, 2004

2003    Jesse Green, "AIDS and the Triumph of Engagé Art," New York Times Magazine, December 7, 2003

            Douglas Crimp, "Gran Fury talks to Douglas Crimp - '80s Then - collective of AIDS activists - Interview," ArtForum April, 2003

2001     Patrick Giles, "AIDS - 20 Years and Counting," Interview Magazine, July, 2001

1997     Charles R. Garoian, "Art Education and the Aesthetics of Health in the Age of AIDS," Studies in Art Education, Vol. 39, No.1, Autumn 1997

1996     Herbert Muschamp, "A Reopening and a Carnival of Graphics," New York Times, September 20, 1996

1995     Thelma Golden, "But Is It Art: The Spirit of Art as Activism," Book review, ArtForum November, 1995

1993     Aaron Betsky, "An Emblem of Crisis Made the World See the Body Anew," New York Times, November 30, 1993

1991    Roberta Smith, "Turning the Corner on Political Correctness?," New York Times, March 3, 1991           

            Bob Gober, "Art and Conflict," Bomb, Winter 1991

            Bojana Pejic, "What Will Become of Our Sensitive Skin?," Art Forum, September, 1991

1990    Roberta Smith, "3 Museums Collaborate To Sum Up a Decade," New York Times, May 25, 1990

            Michael Kimmelman, "Venice Biennale Opens With Surprises," New York Times, May 28, 1990

            Steven Heller, "What's Being Sold Here?," New York Times Book Review, August 5,   1990

1988     Joe Dolce, "Life Saving Art," ID Magazine of International Design, May/June, 1988

 

RADIO/FILM

2017 Will Corwin, Interview, Clocktower Radio, December 2017

Eric Westervelt, “ACT UP At 30: Reinvigorated For Trump Fight,” NPR, April 17, 2017

2015 Vincent Gagliostro (Director), “After Silence,” Documentary, 2015

2014    Sam Roberts, "New York in 10 Objects," Brian Leher Show, WNYC, December 24, 2014

            Rebekah Dewald and Demetrea Dewald, "Let The Record Show," Documentary, 2014

2013    Jean-Marc Vallée (Director), “Dallas Buyers Club,“ Special Thanks, Narrative film, 2013

Rachel Rubin, "Art & Activism, Interview, Avram Finkelstein" Commonwealth Journal, WUMB, Boston, February 25, 2013

2012     Jim Hubbard, "United in Anger: A History of ACT UP," Documentary, 2012

2010     Sarah Schulman, "ACT UP Oral History Project," Interview with Avram Finkelstein, January 23, 2010

2009     Chris Bravo, "Silence Opens Doors," Online documentary interview, 2009

 

WORK IN ARCHIVES & PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

            Brooklyn Museum, New York           

            Cooper-Hewitt, New York           

            Fogg Museum, Massachusetts

            Getty Institute, Los Angeles

            Gutenberg Bibliotek, Germany

            Herzon Museum, Germany

            Kohler Art Library, Wisconsin

            Mainz Bibliotek, Germany

            Museo del Commune di Milan, Italy

            Museum of Modern Art, New York           

            New Museum, New York

            New York Public Library, New York

            Offenback Bibliotek, Germany

            Pesci Museum, Italy

            Smith College, Massachusetts

            Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC

            Spencer Collection, Yale University, Connecticut

            Staadt Museum, Berlin

            Stielich Bibliotek, Germany

             The University Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts 

            Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England

            Wellesley College, Massachusetts

            Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

 

EDUCATION, AWARDS AND HONORS

2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient

2022 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program recipient

2020 Public Art commission, Tinworks Art, Bozeman, MT

Allan Bérubé Prize, On the (Queer) Waterfront: The Factories, Freaks, Sailors, and Sex Workers of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Historical Society, (Co-curated with

Hugh Ryan)

2019 Artist in Residence, Pioneer Works

Inaugural Shed Open Call Commission , New York, NY

2018    Nominee, 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Nonfiction

            Nominee, International Center of Photography' 2018 Infinity Award in Critical Writing and Research.

2017     Mentor, Queer | Art | Mentorship, New York, NY

2016    Artist in Residence, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, NYU, New York, NY

2016     Mentor, Queer | Art | Mentorship, New York, NY

2015     Nominee, Outstanding Visual Design for Snow, Brooklyn Ballet, Bessie NY Dance and Performance Award, New York, NY

2012     Finalist Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant

2011     Honorary Fine Arts Ph.D., with Gran Fury, MassArt, Boston MA

1973     BFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA