José Leonilson

1991, acrylic, embroidery thread, and plastic tacks on voile, 16 1/8 x 12 3/16" (41 x 31 cm), Museum of Modern Art, New York

-      34 with Scars, 1991, acrylic, embroidery thread, and plastic tacks on voile, 16 1/8 x 12 3/16" (41 x 31 cm)

-      Desire is a Blue Lake, 1989, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 3/8" (31.9 x 24 cm)

-      Men With Their Own Attentions, 1989, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 3/8" (32 x 24 cm)

-      To Make Your Soul Close to Me, 1989, watercolor and ink on paper, 12 1/2 x 9 3/8" (31.9 x 23.9 cm)

-      Sunset, Earthquake, Loneliness, 1990, ink and metallic color on paper, 11 7/8 x 8 7/8" (30.4 x 22.7 cm)

-      2011 – “I Am Still Alive: Politics and Everyday Life in Contemporary Drawing” – (March 23 – September 19)

-      2010 – 2011 – “Contemporary Art from the Collection” – (June 30 – Sep 19)

-      2008 – “New Perspectives in Latin American Art” – (November 21 – February 25)

-      2008 – 2009 – “Here Is Everything. Four Decades of Contemporary Art” – (September 10 – March 23)

-      2006 – “Transforming Chronologies: An Atlas of Drawing, Part Two” – (May 10 – October 2)

-      2004 –  “MoMA at El Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art” – (March 4 – July 25)

-      1996 – “Projects 53: Oliver Herring/Leonilson” – (January 18 – March 12)

Leonilson died of complications from HIV on March 28, 1993, in São Paulo. He was posthumously awarded in 1994 by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics for his artworks and contributions. Much of his artwork is recognized for its historical importance in chronicling and visually representing individuals affected by the AIDs epidemic in museums and collections in the years following his death.

1993, mixed fabrics, 222 x 83 cm, Tate Modern, London

-      I Am Your Man, 1992, watercolor and ink on paper, 9 x 12" (22.8 x 30.5 cm)

Further in his career, Leonilson began to include the use of fabrics and sewing. This was familiar to him because his parents worked as cloth merchants. This shift to textiles and 3D forms was originally inspired by artists who utilized fabrics to convey societal message like Hélio Oiticica’s in their artwork Parangolé. In conjunction with this, Leonilson's art career was heavily impacted by his HIV (AIDS) diagnosis in 1991. In the following years, Leonilson experienced physical complications that affected his ability to continue painting; he then fully pivoted to solely use textiles and embroidery. Regardless of the diagnosis, he continued to produce artworks but they became more sparse and increasingly allegorical for his illness. A famous 1993 installation conceived for Capela do Morumbi in São Paulo emphasized universal themes of life and death – the fragile and ephemeral nature of life coupled with welcoming of bodily deterioration and death. His artworks created during these last few years clearly spoke to the issues he faced as a queer man living with HIV as his art became a practice for working through his own grief. As Lagnado points out: “beyond the evidence of his ailment, the marks of his resistance against the anguish of death”. This turmoil and grief was brought to life through Leonilson’s final artworks and in his personal audio-diary recordings.

Returning to Brazil in 1982, he continued creating artwork that was predominantly autobiographical of his adult life and experiences as a queer man. It had been recognized by many art critics at the time, such as Lisette Lagnado, that his artworks were so “raw” and “revealing” that they were almost like “intimate letters in his diary”. The impact of his artwork was deeply felt within certain marginalized communities as it represented and affirmed queer identities – counter-cultural to authoritarian powers at the time like Brazil’s military dictatorship and the Catholic Church.

Leonilson briefly traveled in Europe, and in the early 1980s he interacted with Transavantgarde scene, Italy specific neo-expressionism, that had completely different focus for their artwork than the conceptual art movement at that time in Brazil.

In 1961, Leonilson moved with his family to São Paulo, Brazil where he later started studying art education at Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado in 1977. While there, Leonilson studied under multiple artists and instructors who were fundamental to his introduction to contemporary forms of artwork. Julio Plaza (1938-2003) was an artist and scholar who focused on working in new mediums and the conceptual theory behind connecting them to traditional forms. Additionally, Leonilson studied under Nelson Leirner (1932-2020) who influenced him through his use of allegorical (and sometimes also erotic) artworks focused on political and social criticisms. Later, Leonilson studied under Dudi Maia Rosa (1946- ) at the Aster Art School where, again, the use of materials beyond paint and sculpture were emphasized in their importance in expressing universal themes through an alternative mode.

José Leonilson Bezerra Dias (b. 1957 Fortaleza, Ceará - d. 1993 São Paulo, São Paulo), was a Brazilian artist working in both 2D as a painter and draughtsman and in 3D as textile worker and sculptor. He lived most of his life in Brazil where he created conceptual artworks focused on expressions of love and grief specifically from a queer-lens. Leonilson was diagnosed with HIV (AIDS) at the age of 34, and died a few years later from complications.

-      The Japanese Woman, 1988, acrylic on canvas, 41 5/16 x 61" (105 x 155 cm)