Photo By Gail

During his short but prolific career, David Wojnarowicz worked in writing, painting, photography, film, music, performance and installation. Unapologetically making art about homosexuality during the peak of the AIDS crisis in New York, Wojnarowicz exposed the marginalization and suppression of a stigmatized community.

As a self-taught artist, Wojnarowicz created an iconography that is at once personal and universal. His work as an artist is inseparable from his work as an activist, in which he aimed to bring awareness to that which was made invisible, namely homosexuality.

David Wojnarowicz died from AIDS in his Manhattan home on the night of July 22, 1992. More than 20 years after his untimely death, Wojnarowicz’s work continues to elicit strong reactions and provoke censorship. His work has served as an inspiration to many artists, including Zoe Leonard, Victoria Yee Howe, Matt Wolf, Emily Roysdon, Henrik Olesen, Mike Estabrook, and Carrie Mae Weems.

David Wojnarowicz, The Newspaper as National Voodoo: A Brief History of the U.S.A. (1986) was Photographed in The Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.