Opening: Friday, October 11, 2024, 6–10 pm

On the occasion of Monica Majoli’s solo exhibition Distant Lover 2009–2024, Majoli was invited to present the work of another artist that has had a lasting influence on her practice. In With: Tony Greene and Monica Majoli, the artist pays tribute to the ongoing inspiration of the work and life of Tony Greene (1955–1990):

I first met Tony Greene six months after his death. A ghost, his reputation preceded him through stories imbued with a palpable mourning of his many artist friends I was introduced to in 1990 when I first began to exhibit my work in Los Angeles. In 1991, a year after Greene died at the age of 35 from AIDS, an unforgettable memorial exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) titled Sweet Oleander: An Exhibition of Works by Tony Greene, curated by artist Richard Hawkins, uncovered the artist’s mesmerizing paintings in full. Viewing them then–three primary examples from that exhibition are on display for the first time internationally at the Kunstverein Düsseldorf—it’s almost as if Greene cast a spell. His work has held the power of influence over me ever since. When director Kathrin Bentele suggested I curate a small exhibition to accompany mine, providing a context to understand my work, Greene immediately came to mind; his long-lasting impact remains key. Specifically, Blueboys, a series I began in the spring of 2015 (presented in large part in the museum’s main gallery), follows the conclusion of two years of immersive attention focused on Greene’s oeuvre. In the summer of 2014, artist Judie Bamber and I co-curated a comprehensive exhibition of Greene’s work for the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in Los Angeles.

Greene’s work comes out of a time in recent art history that was not only considering new subject positions of desire but also at a time when those desires were being investigated in relation to the immediacy of the AIDS crisis. Unlike many gay artists at the time who reacted to the epidemic by framing their work solely as activism, he kept that dire reality present in his work while foregrounding passion as something ongoing and alive. Photographic images from physique pictorials, natural history dioramas, and men’s mouths from gay porn act as a base for decorative arabesques and Rosicrucian lettering molded with Rhoplex and carefully layered with lapidary glazes. His paintings evoke an ever-present past, removed and romanticized in images that elicit desire viscerally yet remain encased in veils of paint, barricaded behind ornament and fleshy yarns of Rhoplex. Here, the mediated image of the body is sexualized and made palpable through the paint itself, locked into place by the artist’s hand, recording his involvement almost as if he were transcribing illuminated manuscripts. Curiously and poignantly, Greene manifests a longing for a past that was never known and a future that will never be.

Tony Greene (1955–1990) studied in Los Angeles, receiving his BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 1985 and his MFA from CalArts in 1987, and continued to live and exhibit in Los Angeles and New York during the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this brief and artistically fertile period, he influenced and was influenced by a significant group of artists who went on to shape contemporary art, including Catherine Opie, Richard Hawkins, Lari Pittman, and Nayland Blake. His evocative paintings lived on in the homes of his intimates and artistic peers as a reminder of his friendship and continue his legacy as an artist and personality far beyond the intimate circle of artists who emerged in the mid-1980s in Los Angeles.

– Monica Majoli

Image: Tony Greene, Amid Voluptuous Calm, c. 1988, private collection.