AVRAM FINKELSTEIN
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.
2024 Creative Capital Grant recipient
2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient
2022-23 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program recipient
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Something Terrible Has Happened (corpus fluxus), February 22-April 20, 2025, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn NY (Curator Rachel Vera Steinberg)(upcoming)
2023 Dedications, New York City AIDS Memorial, public art installation, New York, NY (Curator: Dave Harper)
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 The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, October 4, 2024-January 26, 2025, Brooklyn Museum (Curated by Jeffrey Gibson, Vik
Muniz, Mickalene Thomas, and Fred Tomaselli
Flagging the Circle: Collaborative Artworks by 60+ Queer|Art Artists, June 11–20, 2024, Sargent's Daughters, New York, NY
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)
Free Expression and the Inexpressible, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, January 6 – February 4, 2024, (Curator: Aliza Shvarts)
Baraball, Brick Aux, Brooklyn, NY, January 6–February 3, 2024, (Curators: Sam Liebert and Joey Merlo)
2023 Drawing as Practice, National Academy of Design, September 14, 2023-December 16, 2023 (Curators: Sara Reisman, Natalia Viera Salgado) New York, NY
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)
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
2024 Gran Fury: Art is Not Enough, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, August 15 to December 1, 2024 (Curated by André Mesquita and David Ribeiro)
Gran Fury: Art is Not Enough, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, February 23 to June 9, 2024 (Curated by André Mesquita and David Ribeiro)
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
2024 Reclaiming Queerness, Reclaiming Palestine, June 9, Writers Against the War on Gaza, Ariel Goldberg, Mahdi Sabbagh, Nicki Kattoura, moderators Shiv
Kotecha and Hussein Omar, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
Art and Authority / Art as Advocacy, Yale Bernstein Human Rights Symposium, April 11-12, 2024, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT
Artist Talk, April 3, 2024, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2021 Artist Talk, HIV Center Grand Rounds, December 2, 2021, Columbia University, New York, NY
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 Workshop, Centre 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
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.
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
2024 Creative Capital Grant recipient
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
1988 Founding Member of Gran Fury.
1986 Founding Member of The Silence=Death collective.
1973 BFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA