Daniel Samaniego (left) and Brett Reichman (right)
Brett Reichman and Daniel Samaniego
Conversation on the State of Queer Art
CB1 Gallery artist Brett Reichman and his former student at SFAI, Daniel Samaniego, whose work was recently included in Tight Ass: Labor Intensive Drawing and Realism, an exhibition Reichman curated at CB1 Gallery, consider their perspectives on Queer art and how they’re subverting realism.
Brett Reichman (BR): I distinctly remember the first time I saw your work during the MFA portfolio review when you were applying for graduate school. Not only because your work was clearly addressing gay identity politics, but because it was also establishing a broader cultural discourse about masculinity and otherness.
Daniel Samaniego (DS): I remember that time fondly—especially my conversations with friends who encouraged me to come to SFAI to work specifically with you, and to explore what the city had to offer culturally.
I also think I attended SFAI at the right time. In your Anatomy course, I developed a classical yet conceptually rigorous approach to the body, and in Matt Borruso’s course Horror and Fantastical Film: The Visual Language of Excess, I mapped out a trajectory for my current work.
BR: You’ve been tenacious since you graduated, maintaining multiple studios in the face of many evictions. As an emerging artist, how has it been to grapple with this ever-changing landscape in San Francisco?
DS: The frequent moves, increases in rent, and the overall sense of uncertainty have been difficult. I’ve changed studios five times in five years due to varying reasons including landlord driven evictions or raised rents. But the positive aspect is getting to know other artists and forming new friendships. The structure of each studio space has affected my work as well, especially in terms of scale.
BR: When I moved to San Francisco in 1981, the city was also a much different place. It was literally ground zero for the AIDS epidemic. There was a lot of fear. It impacted every gay artist I knew and the work we were making. We lived our lives as if there were no guarantees to make it past our 20s or our 30s. AIDS was such a foundational topic in my work for so many years, and the effect of AIDS on visual culture still resonates. As a queer artist from another generation, what is your perspective in terms the recent history of visual art during the AIDS epidemic?
Brett Reichman included in
Catastrophe curated by John Waters
at Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, MA
July 22 – August 11, 2016
Brett Reichman, Simulation Masterbation, 2010, watercolor and gouache on paper, 26″ x 40″
Brett Reichman will be in a group exhibition at the Albert Merola Gallery in Provincetown, MA this summer, curated by filmmaker and artist John Waters. Artists included: Richard Bosman, Asger Carlsen, Peter Garfield, Bruce Gilden, Bill Lowenburg, Sam McKinniss, Mike Kelley, Enrique Metinides, Arnold Odermatt, Brett Reichman, Charlotte Neel Ritto, Raffael Waldner, John Waters.
Art AIDS America
at The Bronx Museum of Arts
July 13 – September 25, 2016
Brett Reichman, And the Spell Was Broken Somewhere Over the Rainbow, 1993, oil on canvas, 66″ x 90″, collection Portland Museum of Art
The Bronx Museum of the Arts will present the traveling exhibition Art AIDS America, the first exhibition to examine the deep and ongoing influence of the AIDS crisis on American art and culture. The exhibition features more than 125 works in a wide range of media dating from 1981 to the present day, by artists including Félix González-Torres, Derek Jackson, Kia Labeija, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Brett Reichman, and Martin Wong. The exhibition is on view from July 13 through September 25 and is organized by the Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with The Bronx Museum of the Arts.
The exhibition is co-curated by: Jonathan David Katz, Director, Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; and Rock Hushka, Chief Curator at the Tacoma Art Museum.
Art AIDS America is accompanied by a nearly 300-page catalog featuring essays by 15 contributors and with more than 200 illustrations. It is published in association with the University of Washington Press of Seattle and London and designed by Marquand Books, Seattle.