Gran Fury, 1988, oil on canvas, 8 × 10 feet. Courtesy of Visual AIDS.

The efficacy of political art is too often measured against more classically political actions. Thus activist artists are asked, somehow, to justify their work on the same terms as organizers and other social agitators. Perhaps this is unfair. What is interesting, however, is that, in the case of art being made about the AIDS crisis, this tension has become less pronounced precisely as the AIDS movement has occupied less and less of the progressive agenda. The necessity of reminding people that AIDS is not over is an almost properly artistic endeavor. In this way, such art can be seen as the constant attempt to move issues from the margins back towards the center of our collective vision, almost in pursuit of its own superfluity.

This Friday, Visual AIDS opens Tainted Love, and exhibition designed to be just such a reminder. Artists include: Luis Camnitzer, Jose Luis Cortes, fierce pussy, General Idea, Gran Fury, Matt Lipps, Catherine Lord, Charles Lum, Ivan Monforte, and Wu Ingrid Tsang. Curated by Steven Lam & Virginia Solomon for Visual AIDS.