VINCENT GAGLIOSTRO
"In a nutshell: Vincent is an actual legend. Apart from the fact that he is a consummate artist whose gifts, not only extraordinary, but so versatile and fresh that any new graduate of any art school on the planet would envy. His work has been showcased at The Whitney, MOMA, Metropolitan and Cooper-Hewitt as well as galleries across the world. And rightly so - they are immense. That is his visual art. His direction is another, albeit equally enviable, story. His work brings together years of graphic mastery, visual artistry along side a delicate, unapologetic authenticity and a dedication to story telling through simplicity and economy. In addition, we are offered a poetic twist - a romance between camera and viewer that sets the screen alight. This fully rounded artist and warrior for the people is a force to be reckoned with."
- Keith Merrill
Vincent Gagliostro was already a famous graphic artist and designer, and had art - directed music videos for Prince, Cream, Kiss, and Diamonds and Pearls when he turned to filmmaking. His first feature AFTER LOUIE is a tour de force starring Alan Cumming that premiered in London at the British Film Institute and then toured film festivals around the US — including the Hamptons, NewFest, Frameline, Provincetown - before opening for runs in selected theaters. It's the sexy and searingly emotional story of aman who's haunted by his dead friends and lovers, who can't believe that the young men who are attracted to him now are able to live and love in a world where fear of AIDS has receded.
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While developing his next feature, LUMBERVILLE, Gagliostro was a contributing cinematographer on HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (an Academy Award nominee) and wrote and directed the short film, AFTER SILENCE: The Story Behind the Image. AFTER SILENCE profiles Avram Finkelstein, creator of SILENCE-DEATH, the iconic image that came to symbolize the ACT UP movement and the worldwide campaign to find a cure
for AIDS.
Vincent Gagliostro was a founding member of ACT UP and with Avram Finkelstein designed some of the most powerful messaging used by the movement to raise awareness of the AIDS crisis and to forge a positive queer identify for members of the community who were being decimated by it. Acknowledged as one of the surviving elders of the movement, Gagliostro has lectured at Yale on the subject of Art and Activism. His work as a fine artist and his graphic designs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan, Cooper-Hewitt and Whitney Museums. Most recently his work was showcased in the Whitney's special exhibition, “An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney's Collection, 1940-2017."