HIV: Does it Really Matter?
Gallery Q
100 College Ave., #100
Dec 6, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

ImageOut and Gallery Q present an exhibition featuring Charmaine Wheatley’s watercolor portraits, which focus on local community members impacted by HIV, including researchers, clinicians, and caretakers as well as those living with HIV. As artist in residence at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), Wheatley has sat with individuals at diverse locations such as the URMC Infectious Disease clinic, Equal Grounds, Evergreen Health, and Trillium Health. She records her encounters by watercolor drawing, reflecting her profound personal connection with each sitter through a colorful weave of likeness and conversational fragments. Each image serves as a souvenir of a shared moment between artist and sitter, and provides a window on an intensely intimate exchange. Through these portraits, Wheatley invites us deepen our understanding of what it means to be affected by HIV and seeks to dissolve stigma surrounding this virus. This exhibition continues through January 31.