How HIV/AIDS Impacted American Art

Artists have responded to America’s HIV/AIDS epidemic for years. In pop culture, think Lady Gaga’s lipstick campaigns, Bono’s clothing line for Gap, or musical turned movie Rent. In the art world, consider Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s portrait of his partner, who died of AIDS, as a colorful pile of candy.

The new exhibit “A Deeper Dive,” which opened earlier this week at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, traces the history of the disease through a collection of artworks by LGBTQ artists, as well as friends and allies. The exhibit features nine very different artists, including Glenn Ligon and Anthony Viti, and runs through September 25.

Click ahead for thought-provoking text-based works by Ligon, abstract bodily paintings by Viti that border on playful, and intimate black-and-white photographs by Ann P Meredith.