Frank Moore (b. 1953, New York) grew up on Long Island, spending summers in the Adirondacks, and developed an early fascination with nature. He studied at Yale College, spent a year in Paris at the Cité des Arts, and moved to SoHo in 1977, where he pursued painting, drawing, and set and costume design. In 1985, Moore and his partner Robert Fulps purchased a farmhouse in Deposit, New York, where he created a studio and deepened his connection to the natural world; that same year, he learned he was HIV positive, prompting his art to increasingly explore AIDS, bioethics, and environmental degradation. A founding member of Visual AIDS, Moore helped create the Red Ribbon Project, and his work was featured widely, including in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and exhibitions at Sperone Westwater Gallery, which represents his estate. His art is held in major institutions such as MoMA, the Whitney, and the New York Public Library, and a retrospective, Toxic Beauty, was recently presented by NYU’s Grey Art Gallery and Fales Library.
