the art of AIDS

Steed Taylor

 

Steed Taylor is based in New York City and has exhibited his photography, drawings, and site-specific public works internationally. Diagnosed with AIDS in the 1990s, he explored what life would be like if he was removed from it in a series of reconstructed family photographs titled 'Missing' (two of which are displayed on his page). Using a black marker he erased himself from his family portraits with heart-breaking effect.

 

Steed's ongoing site-specific Road Tattoo memorials (also displayed here) are, as the artist explains, "composed of cultural designs previously appropriated to mark skin and placed in locations of individual or community significance". Two of the earliest designs addressed issues of survival and danger in the time of AIDS. Carnal Bend (looking towards Yankee Stadium), painted in 2003, was located in the Mott haven section of the Bronx, an area notorious for illicit sexual activity and a hot zone for HIV transmission. Birthday Knot celebrated Steed's 40th birthday - a day he feared he would never see.

 

These works and others are comprehensively discussed in Steed's interview with Paul Sendziuk, which can be accessed on this page (simply click on Steed's portrait in the left corner).

 

Steed was born in North Carolina and educated at the University of North Carolina, American University and the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture. His art has been displayed in the Bronx Museum, the Mint Museum, the San Bernardino County Museum, the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York, and on roads and drive-ways throughout the country. Besides extensive showings in the New York Metropolitan area, his solo shows include The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Ambrosino Gallery in Miami, Florida and Il Ponte Contemporanea in Rome, Italy.