Hunter Reynolds, Patina du Prey’s Memorial Dress, 1993. Performance view, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Photo: Charles Mayer.
P·P·O·W and the Hunter Reynolds Estate are deeply saddened to announce that Hunter Reynolds, influential artist, activist, and dear friend, passed away peacefully on June 12, 2022 at his home in the East Village surrounded by loyal friends. He was 62 years old.
A deeply gifted artist and resilient fighter, for over three decades Reynolds explored issues of gender, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, politics, mortality, and rebirth through performance, photography, installations, and his drag alter ego, Patina du Prey. Profound, beautiful, and ferociously honest, Reynolds’ work was directly influenced by his lived experiences as an HIV-positive gay man living in the age of AIDS. As a member of ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) and a co-founder of Art Positive, an affinity group fighting homophobia and censorship in the arts, Reynolds used his visual and performance art practice to spread a message of survival, hope, and healing, and to reify queer histories so often marginalized, sterilized, and forgotten. After discovering in 1989 that he had been HIV positive since 1984, Reynolds was inspired by the advice of his friend, the artist Ray Navarro, to not let his disease control him. It was at this point that Reynolds “realized that my work had to do with this experience of death, emotions, and that I wanted people to feel, to experience pain and loss, but also to have hope in life.”
We are grateful for the chance to work so closely with Hunter Reynolds and we will continue to support his legacy.
Memorial service announcements will be released in the coming weeks.
Hunter Reynolds was the recipient of many grants and residencies, including several Pollock Krasner awards. He had presented solo exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Hales, Gallery, London, UK; Participant Inc., New York, NY; Artist Space, New York, NY; White Columns, New York, NY; Creative Time, New York, NY; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; the FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY; Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, CT; and DOCUMENTA, Kassel, Germany, among others. His work is numerous public and private collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; the Shelly & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, NY; and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections acquired the archives of Hunter Reynolds for its Downtown Collection.