Art as Lover

Professor of Art Monica Majoli presents two exhibits around intimacy and the aids crisis in Düsseldorf 

Monica Majoli, painting professor in the Department of Art at UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts, presents two new exhibitions in Düsseldorf: Distant Lover (2009–2024) and With: Tony Greene and Monica Majoli. Both projects will be on view from October 12, 2024, through January 26, 2025, at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf. 

“The Kunstverein Düsseldorf is the first European institution to exhibit a more comprehensive span of my production,” said Majoli. “Multiple bodies of work on view explore intimacy, sexuality and memory in recurrent thematic parallels, destabilizing a gendered self in relationship to desire.” 

In Distant Lover (2009–2024), Majoli explores corporeality, intimacy and memory, informed by experiences of the HIV and AIDS crises of the 1980s and '90s. The exhibition highlights a tension between permanence and transience while capturing fleeting moments of bodily presence. At the core of Distant Lover is Majoli’s latest work Olympus (2024), inspired by the 1970s queer erotic magazine of the same moniker. Olympus reinterprets classical ideals of masculinity, reflecting on the vulnerability and impermanence of the body. Majoli’s portraits serve as a space to illustrate what isn’t seen and preserved as a cultural artifact.  

“The exhibition curator, director Kathrin Bentele, created a concise dialogue of works from a series I began 15 years ago, Black Mirror, which focused on my romantic relationships with women over 25 years,” said Majoli. “My more recent work from the past ten years focused on gay historical men’s magazines. Bentele designed an installation that amplifies the intensity of a viewer’s experience by displaying the work on an elaborate, enveloping sequence of semi-transparent fabric walls. As a result, one confronts the work’s subject, solitude, and bodily sensations in a more disorienting way.” 

Majoli’s second exhibition at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande is With: Tony Greene and Monica Majoli. The show pays tribute to Tony Greene’s enduring impact on Majoli’s art practice. Featuring works from Greene’s Sweet Oleander, the exhibit reflects on Greene's exploration of desire and loss in the context of the AIDS crisis, highlighting his lasting influence on contemporary art. Majoli’s relationship with Greene began six months after his passing at age 35 of AIDS. What drew Majoli to Greene was how during his time, gay artists mainly positioned their work as activism; Greene kept that necessity present while emphasizing passion and intimacy in his art. The exhibition includes photos, natural history dioramas, paintings and more. 

Both exhibitions provide an in-depth exploration of intimacy, time and expression. For events and panels, visit the Kunstverein Düsseldorf website.

To learn more about Distant Lover, visit here. To learn more about With: Tony Green and Monica Majoli, read here. For more information about Monica Majoli, visit her Department of Art bio page here.