July 3, 2023
Visual AIDS is excited to announce Adam Barbu, Dylan Huw, Eduardo Carrera, María José Maldonado, Megan N. Liberty, and Ruby Sutton as our 2023 Research Fellows. Each fellow will work with Visual AIDS to research and write about artists who have been lost to AIDS, drawing on primary sources in the Visual AIDS Archive and related resources. The scope of the fellowship has expanded this year to include research projects on artists who are not currently represented in the Visual AIDS Archive and Registry. Writing commissioned through the fellowship will be published later this fall.
Eduardo Carrera will investigate the archive and artistic oeuvre of George Febres (1943-1996) from a queer lens, authoring the text "Getting the George Febres We Deserve." Carrera draws on Douglas Crimp's essay, "Getting the Warhol We Deserve," which explores how art historians have desexualized Warhol's artwork. By borrowing the title of Crimp's article, Carrera aims to question prevailing interpretations of Febres' art as discreet regarding his sexuality and argues for a reevaluation that acknowledges and embraces the queer aspects of Febres' artistic and curatorial practice.