José Luis Cortés + Eric Rhein
Recorded on July 23, 2022 in Eric Rhein’s studio, this video features artists José Luis Cortés and Eric Rhein in conversation. Both artists were included in the 1995 exhibition The First 10, which featured works by the first ten artists represented in the Visual AIDS Archive. As long-term HIV/AIDS survivors with a rich mutual history, José and Eric unpack the complexities of their childhoods, their introduction to art-making, living through their HIV-related illnesses and early treatment methods, governmental corruption, and the importance of stewarding a legacy. In an additional video, José and Eric each take a moment to more intimately showcase certain pieces of their work, discuss various ephemera they’ve gathered, and connect with Constantine Jones about the intergenerational differences in experience living with HIV.
José Luis Cortés
José Luis Cortés was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Puerto Rican parents. His family moved to Puerto Rico when he was three years old, and he lived there until the age of 28, when he moved to New York City. While living in NYC in the late 1990s, the gay porn industry became José Luis’ obsession. He spent several years documenting this industry from the inside out while he performed as a stripper at EROS, the premier gay male porn theater in the United States. During his performance intermissions, José Luis would step out to photograph the then soon-to-be-destroyed theaters by Times Square during the “renewal” (or “Disneyfication”) plan set in motion by NYC’s then mayor Rudy Giuliani, from which an expansive body of work emerged in the form of paintings. This work ranges from life-size momumental pieces to smaller paintings made on newsprint. The short-lived nature and deceptive fragility of newspaper is the ideal medium to document the context in which José Luis’ life and art happen. José Luis’ work has been exhibited internationally. His work has been reviewed in various publications such as The New York Times, Art in America, and Out Magazine. José Luis is also an AIDS activist. As a founding member of The Archive Project, he was included in the landmark exhibition, The First 10 (1995).
Later followed a solo show in his homtown Philly at Taller Puertorriqueno titled Blanco y Negro. Currently in Puerto Rico, he works as a fetish film maker in queer film festivals, which includes the award winning CASH MASTER, a published poet (Hablame Sucio series) and performance artist. Both his work and mediums continue to reflect the complexity of his life history as a gay man and artist.
“At fifteen, I realized what I liked sexually. I met a very good looking Canadian who picked me up and took me to his hotel room. We began to have sex, he slapped me on the face, took me from behind while pulling my hair. When it was all over I -knees shaking - felt exhilarated, fulfilled, and happy. From then on I developed a fixation with rough sex, being dominated and one night stands. I hardly ever dated and have been promiscuous ever since. I went on living my life this way. Pain, pleasure, sex, beauty, drugs and love have always been intertwined within my essence.”
—José Luis Cortés (excerpt from the essay “It Feels Like Love But It’s The Drugs”)
2013 Web Gallery under the same name.
You can view José’s artwork on the Visual AIDS Artist Registry here.
Eric Rhein
Eric Rhein’s work—in a variety of media—chronicles his experience and travels, both geographic and mystic; his childhood in the Appalachian Mountains and New York’s Hudson Valley, and his more than three decades living with HIV.
Arriving in New York City in 1980, 18-year-old Rhein became a part of the vital East Village arts scene, a unique community which permanently altered the city’s cultural and creative landscape—and which was in-turn deeply altered by the AIDS crisis.
Rhein’s first New York works, butterfly puppets constructed for George Balanchine, sparked an interest in the use of linear elements—a formal theme that recurs in his work.
After his diagnosis in 1987, Rhein began exploring themes of vulnerability, resilience and transcendence. In 1996, the year protease inhibitors restored Rhein’s physical vitality, he began his ongoing series, Leaves, which honors the lives of over 300 individuals he knew who died of complications from AIDS. Leaves continues to evolve and be shown internationally. Art historian and AIDS activist Robert Atkins wrote, “Art has always played a role in coming to terms with collective tragedy, and the role of an artist has frequently been to bear witness. Surely an art of memory like Eric Rhein’s can help harmonize our views by suggesting that honoring the past is one way to live more fully in the present.”
Rhein’s considered and intuitive use of repurposed objects is a hallmark of his art, employing materials as varied as wire, pages from vintage books and scientific journals, hardware, jewelry, and other found objects. Gathered from locations as varied as Japan, Thailand, France, and the streets of New York, he handles these salvaged materials with empathetic reverence. For Rhein, the act of giving castoffs a renewed life mirrors the artist’s own spiritual path, as well as his evolving relationship with HIV.
Rhein’s monograph-memoir Eric Rhein – Lifelines features intimate photographs: self-portraits and images of friends and lovers as a personal response to the AIDS crisis.
Rhein received his BFA and MFA from SVA. International exhibitions include the Victoria and Albert Museum; Pera Museum, Istanbul; 21er Haus Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna; American Embassies in Austria, Cameroon, Greece, and Malta; the Addison Gallery of American Art; the Leslie-Lohman Museum; Lincoln Center, Artists Space; Art in General; Sculpture Center; White Columns; The Bronx Museum of the Arts; Yale University Art Gallery; and the Smithsonian. Reviews of Rhein’s work have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Art News, and Art in America. Grants and fellowships include the Pollock/Krasner Foundation, Art Matters, and MacDowell.
Eric Rhein is included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art's "Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project.” in which participants are interviewed in-depth, creating a comprehensive review of their life and work.
For his art and activism, Eric received the 2017 Visual AIDS Vanguard Award.
You can view Eric’s artwork on the Visual AIDS Artist Registry here.
Visual AIDS Exhibition: The First 10
Visual AIDS' first exhibition featured the works of the first ten artists represented in The Archive Project: Peter Cherone, Jose Luis Cortes, Lucretia Crichlow, William Cullum, Leonard Davis, Garland Eliason-French, Anselmo Figueiredo, David Knudsvig, Rick Martinez, and Eric Rhein.