Visual AIDS

Visual AIDS is excited to announce Alex Lenczycki, Chava Maeve Krivchenia, Claudia Mattos, Diogene Artiles, and Helena Shaskevich as our 2025–26 Research Fellows.

Claudia Mattos’s research proposes the first comprehensive art historical study of Craig Coleman’s (1961-1994) Miami-era practice, situating Coleman’s fusion of visual art, writing, and performance within the city’s q***r cultural history and the legacy of AIDS-era expression in South Florida.

Chava Maeve Krivchenia will sort through Garland Eliason-French’s (1942-1996) correspondence, personal journals, photographs, art documentation, and ephemera, and plans to map the artist’s creative influences, with a particular focus on her time spent in Chicago and the Midwest.

Alex Lenczycki will seek to illuminate the life and work of Gin Louie (1947-1994), a pivotal figure and former director of the Lower East Side Print Shop in the 1980s, with particular interest in his artistic transition to autobiographical assemblage following his AIDS diagnosis.

Helena Shaskevich will research artist Michael Tidmus’s (1951-2012) HyperCard projects with a specific focus on his 1987 The AIDS Stack. Made just prior to the widespread use of the world wide web, the work is an early example of AIDS related computer activism.

Diogene Artiles will look at the work of Miguel Ferrando (1957-1996), Dominican artist active in New York City’s downtown art scene during the 1980s and 1990s. Diogene is interested in Ferrando’s use of religious iconography, Dominican national symbols, and his artistic community and inspirations in New York City. .wav

Stay tuned — writing commissioned through the fellowship will be published on the Visual AIDS Journal in Fall 2026.

It’s time for another year of , the annual project that distributes hundreds of heartfelt valentines to women across the world living with HIV.

This year, Visual AIDS collaborated with two artist members, J. Hartz and Alexander Robateau, to create special-edition valentines. These valentines, along with letters of love from our community, will be mailed to women all over the world in time for February 14.

Are you interested in writing caring letters to a woman/women living with HIV? As women sign up to receive a valentine, they will be asked to share one or two interests/hobbies so that a personalized letter can be written for them. Come to our letter-writing party to help pen individualized letters to the 600+ recipients. Join us on January 31 at 2pm on the 3rd floor of No RSVP is required and the museum is free.

Are you a woman or femme living with HIV who would like to receive a valentine and letter? Click the link in our bio to sign up to receive a card.

More about the project:

Visual AIDS is proud to partner with ongoing collaborator MoMA PS1 for our annual project LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN. We are also proud to partner with the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, who printed the edition of Alexander Robateau’s valentines.

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN is an international series of events that uses Valentine’s Day as a backdrop, creating a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV. LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN is an ongoing project established by Visual AIDS artist member in 2013.

After the event, the valentines will be mailed around the world to HIV-positive women in time for Valentine’s Day. Women living with HIV often experience isolation and stigma and face specific challenges around relationships, motherhood, and healthcare. Since 2015, the project has distributed over 4,000 cards in order to fight stigma, create community, and empower women living with HIV.

Our buy one, get one sale is now live at postcards.visualaids.org!

Discount automatically applied at checkout for every two items in your cart (buying two? Charged for one! Buying six? Charged for 3… you get it).

Check out available artwork in the sale, and help support the Visual AIDS Archive, exhibitions, women’s specific programs, publications, film commissions, and direct grants to artists living with HIV. Every artwork sold benefits our work at Visual AIDS during a ramping crisis for HIV/AIDS and arts funding.

Spread the word and happy postcarding!