Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990) is one of a generation of American artist-photographers including Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin and close friend Laurie Simmons, who came of age in 1970s New York. In his lifetime DeSana had over a dozen solo shows, at Pat Hearn Gallery, Galerie Jablonka, and elsewhere. He was featured in over fifty group shows, including the seminal P.S.1 exhibition New York/New Wave (1981). In recent years his work has been shown at Salon 94, the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, White Columns and Pioneer Works. His monograph Submission (Scat Publications, 1979) is considered an essential photographic publication of the era. The Aperture Foundation published Jimmy DeSana: Suburban (2015), with essays by Laurie Simmons and Elisabeth Sussman.
The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs at Griffin Art Projects is part of Capture Photography Festival’s 2020 Selected Exhibition Program.
Image: Jimmy DeSana, Untitled (Male Nude), 1985, vintage c-print, 25.4 x 20.32 cm. Courtesy of the Jimmy DeSana Trust, and Salon 94, New York