Louis Fulgoni: Memory + Legacy is a virtual retrospective exhibition of work by a prolific visual artist born in 1936 and raised in an Italian-American household in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Louis came of age as a young gay man in the closeted 1950s, left Staten Island for “the city” in the 1960s and went on to live and work on his own terms until his death of complications from AIDS in 1989. Although he produced an enormous body of work over the decades, most of it has not been seen publicly until now.
By tracing the arc of Louis’s creative journey, this exhibition finally rectifies an omission in the art historical record. By reclaiming his place in that history, it also seeks to illuminate the wider but often forgotten legacy of working artists lost to AIDS in New York and beyond.
Louis Fulgoni (left) and Michael McKee at the Grand Canyon in July 1982. Photo by Emily Margolis.
Seasons of Joy and Sorrow
Michael McKee was Louis Fulgoni’s life partner and, ultimately, his primary caregiver after Louis was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. They lived together through many challenges for more than fifteen years, and most of that time they were inseparable. Here, Michael recalls the multitudes Louis contained.…
Untitled, oil and gesso on canvas, 1989: Louis’s last painting, completed shortly before his final illness.
Artist on Fire
Louis Fulgoni had been making art at a breakneck pace for more than a decade by the day in 1970 when he watched most of it go up in smoke. Conflagrations, both literal and figurative, were inflection points in Louis’s career as a visual artist. Here is the story of his life and times, seen through the prism of his work, by Timothy Ledwith…
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