Gran Fury: Art Is Not Enough

A sweeping look at the history of the artist collective whose graphic poster designs helped define the visual culture of AIDS activism

Gran Fury (1988–95) was a New York–based activist artist collective that emerged from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an organization founded in 1987 to raise awareness about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States through political activism. Named for the vehicle favored by the New York City police, Gran Fury formed to summon a sense of collective indignation. The collective’s innovative graphic design campaigns were mobilized in ACT UP demonstrations to awaken the public to the disdain, neglect and silence of Ronald Reagan’s administration during the epidemic. The group produced posters, newspapers, stickers, photographs, videos and billboards that were circulated to transform perceptions about HIV/AIDS, interrogate ineffective public policies and underreported government data, interrupt misconceptions disseminated by the media, confront the morality of religious institutions, and alleviate the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS. They worked closely with other activist groups, including the Silence=Death Project, whose posters featuring a pink triangle came to be a defining visual of the AIDS crisis.
This richly illustrated catalog is a comprehensive survey of the collective’s body of work. It includes unpublished essays, historical interviews, rare pamphlets, photographs and ephemera that altogether chart the development of a new visual language for effecting social change. Gran Fury: Art Is Not Enough is an indispensable reference for the study of the intersection of activism and the arts in the late 20th century.