From Emily Manning’s article for i-D:
Another critical Boston subject included in the ClampArt show: the late, hugely influential gallerist Pat Hearn. “In terms of location, Ms. Hearn tended to be the first art dealer on the block,” The New York Times said of her eponymous gallery’s East Village and Chelsea incarnations. (John Waters put it better: “She blazed her own trail through the most abandoned neighborhoods in Manhattan and made the weekly art addicts come to her galleries and fight their way through the real addicts who were there first.”).
In 1986, the same year Hearn mounted Morrisroe’s first New York City solo show at her 9th St. space, the artist was diagnosed HIV-positive. Hearn served as the executor of Morrisroe’s estate, and continued to exhibit his work throughout the 90s (she passed away in 2000 at age 45). Boy Next Door (Beautiful but Dumb) is comprised principally of works acquired directly from Hearn. Which makes the show something of a rare opportunity to see Morrisroe’s work in-person.
Browse the exhibition “Mark Morrisroe (1959-1989): Boy Next Door (Beautiful But Dumb)” at ClampArt
Browse all of Mark Morrisroe’s work at ClampArt