​Today, December 1, 2016, is World AIDS Day, and it is also the opening of the Art AIDS America Chicago Exhibition. This show has now been traveling across the US (Tacoma Art Museum in Washington, Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw State University of Georgia, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York) with Chicago being it's last scheduled stop.

For this final exhibition, the entire collection will be on display. Within the show are three beautiful Jerome Caja pieces: Bozo Fucks Death, Little Yellow Angels, and Shroud of Curad. If you are in the Chicago area, you should treat yourself to this exquisite show. It is like no other and is more timely than ever. The co-curators, Rock Hushka and Jonathan David Katz, succeeded in doing what no other art museum would risk – taking on a large-scale, uncompromising exhibition on art and AIDS. This is not to be missed!

​December 1, 2016 through April 2, 2017
Alphawood Gallery, 2401 North Halsted Street Chicago, Illinois 60614

Free Timed Admission Passes Recommended (click here to register online)

“This groundbreaking exhibition underscores the deep and unforgettable presence of HIV in American art. It introduces and explores the whole spectrum of artistic responses to AIDS, from the politically outspoken to the quietly mournful, surveying works from the early 1980s to the present.”

“Art AIDS America will culminate its national tour at the new Alphawood Gallery, established for this presentation by the Alphawood Foundation, at 2401 North Halsted Street (at Fullerton Avenue). The exhibition – opening on World AIDS Day, Thursday, December 1, and continuing through Sunday, April 2, 2017 – will be free and open to the public.”

SFMOMA Makes Jerome Caja’s Art Available Online

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has published online images of Jerome Caja's works in its collection. These pieces include several types of the multi-media and nail polish paintings that Jerome is most well known for: tip trays, bottle caps, games & pieces, assemblages, pistachio shells, and crinkle paintings. His signature iconography — fried eggs, fruit bowls, smiley faces, dead birds, drag queens, clowns, and phalluses — is also well represented here.

The last time these pieces were on public display was 2012, just before the museum closed for renovation and expansion. Because of their small size, delicacy, and fragility, they were shown in a large vitrine as part of the group exhibition, “Contemporary Painting, 1960 to the Present — May 18-August 12, 2012.”
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It has been 21 years to the day that Jerome Caja died. God, I miss him.

"Here’s to you Jerome — You have been a source of inspiration from the time I first laid eyes on you. I’ll never forget that moment. It was at Club Uranus on a Sunday night when you hopped up on the bar to go-go dance, flailing away with your signature harsh makeup and skimpy, tattered lingerie that looked like it had been ripped off of a discarded Barbie doll. I was transfixed! This was my first glimpse of a fierce, queer, punk tornado who truly celebrated NOT fitting in!

You made us laugh at a time when HIV & AIDS devastated both our homes and our beloved community. You were a beacon of bizarre, fresh light and a ferocious vanguard during the darkest of times. You had the courage to publicly annihilate every stereotype of masculinity, and you made us look honestly at our own internalized homophobia.

You lived life to the fullest without ever letting fear dictate your actions. You did what you wanted, when you wanted, how you wanted. Thank you for your unapologetic, provocative, creative spirit. Thank you for breaking all those gender taboos and for inspiring us to do the same. And lastly, thank you for creating a masterful body of work that continues to inspire, move, and touch us to this day."

We love and miss you dearly, Jerome!

by Anthony Cianciolo

Thank you Glen Helfand!

I want to give a special thank you to Glen, who is one of the advisors on The Jerome Project. He has written the insightful essay, "Art AIDS SF: Tales of the City," which is published in the catalog for the "Art AIDS America" show. Glen has a deep understanding of Jerome's place in San Francisco and in contemporary American art. It is an honor to work with him. He has given us golden advice on structuring Jerome's life story in the film.

Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) takes the risk that most museums won't.

Rock Hushka (Co-curator of Art AIDS America), Stephanie Stebich (Executive Director of TAM), and Jonathan David Katz (Co-curator of Art AIDS America) prove that a large exhibition dedicated to HIV/AIDS in American art has a powerful appeal. Together, they worked for more than a decade to gather 100+ extraordinary pieces in this show. Hundreds showed up for the opening night reception, and the next day Jonathan gave an insightful talk to a packed house. This show takes us past the decades of trauma to illustrate how HIV/AIDS fundamentally changed American art.

Thank you Rock, Stephanie, and Jonathan for including Jerome Caja's paintings (Bozo Fucks Death, Little Yellow Angels, Shroud of Curad) in the exhibition. You are doing what most museums won't: you are displaying provocative works by Jerome that have rarely been exhibited in public. This broad visibility is what Jerome always strived for.

The picture gallery here highlights some of the artwork in the exhibition on opening weekend.

Allison Abbate - Film Producer, Director, Writer
BAFTA-Award winning producer of Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Iron Giant, and The Lego Movie, Allison brings a wealth of filmmaking experience to our table. As someone who did not know Jerome personally, her participation allows us to ensure the least biased view of Jerome, and thereby reach the widest possible audience.

Ed Gilbert - Director of Anglim Gilbert Gallery
Anglim Gilbert Gallery (formerly known as Gallery Paule Anglim) in San Francisco has been a critical supporter of Jerome’s work, representing him since the early 1990s. Ed served on the board of the Headlands Center for the Arts, and as Board President of Southern Exposure Gallery, in addition to regularly advising emerging artists.

Paul Karlstrom - Independent Art Writer, Oral Historian, Biographer
As West Coast Regional Director at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art from 1973 – 2003, Paul interviewed Jerome in 1995 as part of the West Coast oral history compilation. He was solely responsible for the Smithsonian being the first major institution to make a lasting commitment to Jerome.

Jonathan Katz - Curator, Writer, Associate Professor, Art Historian
Director of the visual studies doctoral program, State University of New York-Buffalo. Jonathan founded and directed the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay studies at Yale University. He is president of the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York. In addition, he has curated two large group shows that include Jerome's work: Hide/Seek at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C, and Art AIDS America, a new exhibition that will travel across the country in 2015 through 2017.

Julie Blankenship - Nonprofit Leader & Director, Curator, Educator, Artist
Executive Director of Visual Aid and its gallery, a social justice organization that supports artists with life-threatening illnesses. Like Jerome, Julie went to the San Francisco Art Institute. She also founded the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award, which was given to outstanding Visual Aid artists.

Daniell Cornell - Curator, Art Critic
Daniell is the Donna and Cargill MacMillan Jr., Director of Art at the Palm Springs Art Museum. He was introduced to Jerome’s work through Visual Aid and while helping to open the San Francisco Queer Cultural Center gallery in 2004/5.

Craig Corpora - Art Historian, Department Assistant at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Wrote his thesis on Jerome at San Francisco State University and has published articles about Jerome for GLBTQ.com and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art website. He works in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.

William Farley - Film Director, Lecturer, Associate Professor
Award-winning veteran filmmaker and director of Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish; Shadow and Light: The Life and Art of Elaine Badgley Arnoux; and many others. He has been making films since the 1970s.

Glen Helfand - Writer, Critic, Curator,Teacher
Glen has curated exhibitions for the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, the San Jose Museum of  Art, and many alternative and commercial gallery spaces. He taught contemporary art at California College of the Arts, San Francisco State University, Mills College, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Glen has also written the essay, "Art AIDS SF: Tales of the City," which features Jerome and is published in the catalog for the "Art AIDS America" show.

Jim Hubbard - Activist, Documentary Filmmaker
Director of the documentary film United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, A MacDowell Diary, Memento Mori, and many other films since 1974. He also co-created the ACT UP Oral History Project, which is a benchmark for the Jerome Project.

Adam Klein - Writer, Lecturer, Singer-songwriter for the band The Size Queens
Award-winning author and educator. Adam was a close friend of Jerome’s. He co-wrote the monograph “Jerome: After the Pageant,” and wrote the essay on Jerome, “The New Eyes,” which was published in Life Sentences: Writers, Artists, and AIDS. Adam also co-curated  the largest exhibition on Jerome, Odyssey and Underworld.

Peter Selz - Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley, Art Historian
Curator of Modern Painting and Sculpture at MOMA, New York (1958 – 1965) and founding director of the University Art Museum, UC Berkeley. He is also the author of Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, which discusses Jerome's art. Peter is a pioneering historian of modern art who had close relationships with such major art figures as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Christo, and many others.

David Weissman - Film Director, Producer, Lecturer, Activist
Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker, teacher, film programmer, public speaker, and longtime activist. He is best known as producer of the acclaimed documentaries, We Were Here (2011) and The Cockettes (2002). He was also a close friend of Jerome's and  filmed Jerome for his short titled Complaints.

by Anthony Cianciolo

Thank you Sabrina & Megan at City Picture Frame in San Francisco!

We just put together the very first production run of Anna van der Meulen's 35mm color slide prints of Jerome in Cleveland. It is titled Triptych from the "3304 St. Clair Series." Anna and I collaborated together in designing the layout. We had the images printed up on aluminum and float-mounted them in a white shadowbox with UV-protection glass. It is stunning! This piece will be the first in a series of fifty, and it will be in the San Francisco Cinematheque Art Auction (Online Bidding: Jerome Caja Triptych) presented by Paddle8. Fifty percent of the proceeds from the sale of this piece will support The Jerome Project, and the purchaser of this piece will get a special thank-you credit in the documentary film on Jerome Caja. When the online auction ends at 3:00 pm on September 25th, it transfers to a silent auction held at the Center For New Music on September 26th at 7:00 pm.

I also want to give a big shout out to City Picture Frame. They were wonderful to work with, especially because I was under a tight two-week deadline to deliver this piece in time for the auction. Sabrina's design suggestions were spot on, and her co-worker, Megan also helped with all the last minute wrap-ups. This is the first time I have ever produced a professional production run of Jerome photographs and City Picture Frame is now going to be my go-to framing house.

Thank you City Picture Frame!

Website: City Picture Frame
Website: Paddle8 Auction for the SF Cinematheque
Auction Artwork: Triptych from the "3304 St. Clair Series"

Thank you Les Hanson and Jim James!

These are two great photos of Jerome prancing around in poultry drag at the 1990 Folsom Street Fair. Jerome created these handmade papier-mâché orange duck feet pumps and feathered lingerie illustrating his unique drag couture. The B&W photo by Jim James was published in Adam Klein & Thomas Avena's monograph, Jerome: After the Pageant.

I will add these marvelous gems to the digital catalogue raisonné.

An Homage to Francisco Goya & Charles Sexton

In order to fully appreciate this painting, context is needed about Jerome Caja and Charles Sexton. In the late 80's both men studied art together at the San Francisco Art Institute and became friends. Living with HIV prompted both artists to enter into a pact. Their commitment was that whoever was the "Loser in Life" had to bequeath his ashes to the survivor to be used for art. Charles was the first to go. Jerome then spent two years mixing nail polish with Charles' ashes and created a large body of artwork. Jerome gave many of these pieces to Charles' family and friends as personal reliquaries.

Jerome is often miscategorized as an outsider artist. In reality, he is a classically trained insider artist who went to several art schools. An avid museum patron, Jerome revered the masters and referenced their art in his own. "Charles Devouring Himself" is a good example of Jerome's reworking of a classic painting by Goya. The painting was exhibited in the "Remains of the Day" show at Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco and the "Hide/Seek" show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.

My Dear Friend of 25 Years Supports Jerome and the Arts

Two weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a generous financial donation to The Jerome Project from one of my oldest San Francisco friends, Christopher. We met in San Francisco during the summer of 1990. Christopher has been a constant supporter of my various art endeavors. He housed me in Washington DC when I went to the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art to research Jerome's papers, he calls regularly to see if I am still above-water managing this huge project, he sent me his lovely picture of Jerome to add to the repository, and most recently, he came through with production funds I needed for the next stage of the project.

Lauren O'Connor's Thoughts on Preserving Jerome Caja

Check out this wonderful Jerome post by Lauren on Tumblr (Bay Area Video Coalition Preservation Department -- January 27, 2015). She is a great ambassador for The Jerome Project. Lauren tirelessly put in hundreds and hundreds of hours converting analog video of Jerome frame-by-frame to museum-quality digital format. She worked on Jerome video for over six months.

Lauren loves Jerome! Every time I'd stop by BAVC, she would greet me with a huge grin and tell me a new crazy story about Jerome. Needless to say, we had a lot of laughs during this process.

Thank you, Lauren, for all your hard work. The digital files you created are the meat & potatoes of my film!

The Jerome Project Collaborates with the San Francisco Cinematheque

Jerome is going to be in a new group show! This is the fifth annual art auction and benefit celebrating San Francisco Cinematheque. The Jerome Project is donating Anna van der Meulen's fabulous photo triptych of him. This piece will be on sale and the proceeds will go to the SF Cinematheque and the new documentary film being made on Jerome.

Years ago Anna donated these film negatives to us, and we are producing new, signed, limited-edition runs of her work. The purchaser will also receive a special credit in the documentary film.

Lastly, thank you Noah Cowan (Executive Director of the San Francisco FIlm Society) for spreading the word about The Jerome Project and helping us get Jerome into this show!

The Fifth Annual Art Auction & Benefit celebrating San Francisco Cinematheque

"Please JOIN US at the Center for New Music for a special reception and silent art auction—including fabulous food, libations and music from DJ Wobbly with many artists and filmmakers in person—in celebration and support of San Francisco Cinematheque and our 55th year of exhibiting cutting-edge avant-garde film and video art. Over 50 international, national and regional artists have contributed artworks to this year’s stellar exhibition of photography, painting, collage, sculpture and multimedia installation."

The Beginnings of my Documentary Film on Jerome

Big thanks to the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) for awarding The Jerome Project the Preservation Access Program grant! Thank you Scott England, Matt Flynn, Stevyn Polk, David Faulk, Michael Johnstone, Chuck Mobly, Adam Klein, and The Jerome Caja Estate for entrusting me with your video. BAVC you rock! You kickstarted my production by digitizing 100+ hours of video (16 terabytes of data). I also want to give a very special shout out to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for funding this grant.

Lastly, if anybody out there has any video on Jerome Caja, please contact us and let's talk about digitizing it.

"Art/AIDS/America" directed & co-curated by Dr. Jonathan D. Katz

"Art/AIDS/America examines 30 years of artistic production made in response to the AIDS epidemic in the United States." -- This show is presented in two parts at the ONE Archives Gallery & Museum and the West Hollywood Library. This is just a taste of what is to come. Twenty percent of the collection is now on display until September 6th. Then the entire show will be exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum, and it will eventually travel to other cities in the US.

If you are in Los Angeles before September 6th, don't miss this chance to see two significant Jerome pieces (Little Yellow Angels & The Shroud of Curad). Lastly, Jonathan is one of our art advisors on The Jerome Project, and we are really grateful to have a veteran queer academic on our board. Thank you Jonathan!

Visual Storytelling by Bruce Block

A big thanks to veteran filmmaker Bruce Block for his three-day "Visual Storytelling" class at Lucas Film in the Presidio. It was insightful and helpful for mapping out the layers of art direction in my film on Jerome. Hands-down this was the best continuing education class the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) has offered. Bruce gave me the vocabulary needed to communicate my artistic ideas effectively to my crew. His graphs and charts for creating design roadmaps are golden. I also love how he can boil down a film to its one basic “Rule.”

Because Jerome has been so marginalized, we (the audience) need to see the bigger picture. Bruce confirmed my idea that using a wide-screen format for my film will give a broader perspective on Jerome and pull him out of the periphery.

I highly recommend Bruce's book "The Visual Story" too. It will enhance how you use the visual elements of your film to tell your story. If you ever get a chance to see him speak in person, treat yourself. He is entertaining and informative, and he will give you key storyboard techniques that are essential to crafting a beautiful film.

Website: www.bruceblock.com

by Anthony Cianciolo

Piecing Together Jerome Caja's Life Story

I just want to give a huge thanks to Daniel Nicoletta for all his help this past year putting me in contact with key people in Jerome's life. Daniel has been instrumental in locating privately held pieces of Jerome's artwork that have not been seen publicly in more than 20 years.