02/03/2026
Visual AIDS is excited to announce Alex Lenczycki, Chava Maeve Krivchenia, Claudia Mattos, Diogene Artiles, and Helena Shaskevich as our 2025–26 Research Fellows.
Claudia Mattos’s research proposes the first comprehensive art historical study of Craig Coleman’s (1961-1994) Miami-era practice, situating Coleman’s fusion of visual art, writing, and performance within the city’s q***r cultural history and the legacy of AIDS-era expression in South Florida.
Chava Maeve Krivchenia will sort through Garland Eliason-French’s (1942-1996) correspondence, personal journals, photographs, art documentation, and ephemera, and plans to map the artist’s creative influences, with a particular focus on her time spent in Chicago and the Midwest.
Alex Lenczycki will seek to illuminate the life and work of Gin Louie (1947-1994), a pivotal figure and former director of the Lower East Side Print Shop in the 1980s, with particular interest in his artistic transition to autobiographical assemblage following his AIDS diagnosis.
Helena Shaskevich will research artist Michael Tidmus’s (1951-2012) HyperCard projects with a specific focus on his 1987 The AIDS Stack. Made just prior to the widespread use of the world wide web, the work is an early example of AIDS related computer activism.
Diogene Artiles will look at the work of Miguel Ferrando (1957-1996), Dominican artist active in New York City’s downtown art scene during the 1980s and 1990s. Diogene is interested in Ferrando’s use of religious iconography, Dominican national symbols, and his artistic community and inspirations in New York City. .wav
Stay tuned — writing commissioned through the fellowship will be published on the Visual AIDS Journal in Fall 2026.
