Alumni
Baxter St at CCNY has long been a catalyst for innovative creation within the artistic mediums of photography and video practices. Ranging from exhibitions, residency programs, and partnerships, our core mission is to support and activate a vibrant community deeply engaged in the art of lens-based contemporary practices. Take a look at the wide breadth of alumni that are a part of our wonderful and ever-expanding community.
ARTISTS
Pacifico Silano
Baxter St. Residency (2015)
ARTISTS
Pacifico Silano
Baxter St. Residency (2015)
Pacifico Silano is a lens based artist whose work is an investigation into lost histories of the LGBTQ community and how it has shaped contemporary gay identity. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he received his BFA in Photography from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and his MFA in Photography, Video & related media from the School of Visual Arts. His work has been exhibited internationally, including group shows at the Bronx Museum; Context, Miami; Oude Kerk, Amsterdam; and ClampArt, New York City. His first solo exhibition, “Against Nature” opened at ClampArt in January of 2015. Awards won by Silano include the 2012 Individual Photographer’s Fellowship from the Aaron Siskind Foundation; Finalist for the Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize and First Prize at the Pride Photo Awards in Amsterdam.
In Tear Sheets, Silano creates composite images that appropriate gay iconography from 1970s and 80s porn magazines such as Blueboy, Torso and Honcho in order to negotiate his own identity and formative experiences as impacted by the AIDS crisis. The images that filled the glossy pages of these magazines once accompanied articles on blithe topics – fashion, popular culture, sex and cruising – intertwined with heavier issues such as gay rights, political activism and HIV/AIDS. The pages of these magazines represent specific cultural moments that are often obliterated and forgotten. Although porn has largely been discarded and devalued as “ephemera,” the content of these magazines is evident of a gay socialization and identity formation that has had global consequence and influence, fragmented and transformed but still alive today. As an abyss of pornography has moved from under the mattress to the mobile phone screen, gay identity and its relationship to the circulation of images is often left unexamined. In response, Silano’s Tear Sheets explores the visual culture and iconography of his queer predecessors to reconcile the loss and longing that permeates those affected by the AIDS crisis.
