Artworks by John Arsenault and Pacifico Silano are discussed in T.S. Flock’s review of the exhibition “Art AIDS America,” currently on view at the Tacoma Art Museum, for the Vanguard Seattle blog:
‘Art AIDS America’ is not a requiem, though individual pieces are often elegiac. It celebrates the courage and cunning of its many visionaries and makes the history of HIV/AIDS vividly relevant to all audiences. Catharsis through the artistic expression of grief does not enlighten audiences who were too young or removed from the crisis to have experienced it personally, and those who lived through those years do not need another reminder of loss and “survivor’s guilt.” Individual works in the show speak their truths directly (be they somber, wry, enraged or celebratory), and then converse with one another to reveal what we have learned and what grew from the destruction.
Browse all of John Arsenault’s work at ClampArt
Browse all of Pacifico Silano’s work at ClampArt