▷ Hunter Reynolds | Buy Original Art Online

United States • 1959 - 2022

Biography

Hunter Reynolds (1959–2022) was a leading American artist, renowned for his work in performance, photography, installation, and activism. Born in Rochester, Minnesota, he received his BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 1984 and moved to New York City, becoming deeply involved in the East Village art scene.

Diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1984, Reynolds became an activist with ACT UP and co-founded Art Positive in 1989, a collective fighting homophobia and censorship in the arts. His drag persona, Patina du Prey, appeared in many of his most powerful performances, including the Memorial Dress, a monumental gown inscribed with the names of 25,000 AIDS victims.

His work addresses profound themes of gender, sexuality, illness, death, and resilience. Key projects include Survival AIDS, which blends press clippings, photographs, and personal materials, and his Mummification performances, in which he was wrapped in plastic and tape to evoke vulnerability and rebirth.

He held solo exhibitions at major venues such as P·P·O·W Gallery (New York), Hales Gallery (London), Participant Inc., White Columns, Artists Space, Creative Time, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco). His works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, and the Addison Gallery of American Art.

Reynolds received multiple Pollock-Krasner grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. In 2009, he was honored with the Visual AIDS Vanguard Award. In 2017, his archives were acquired by New York University's Fales Library for their Downtown Collection.

Until his death in 2022 from cancer related to HIV, he continued to create, producing a series of 11 self-portraits documenting his physical and spiritual transformation. His work remains a cornerstone of queer art and the AIDS activist movement.

Nationality

American artists