Spanning 1987–1993, Strange State of Being illustrates that illness by no means negates intimacy. The exhibition, now on view at Alexander Gray Associates, brings together a selection of oil paintings by Hugh Steers, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and died of AIDS- related complications in 1995, when he was only 32 years old. Featuring an array of male nudes in domestic interiors, the works are imbued with grace and elegance, and manifest queer sensuality and devotion in a time marked by unsurmountable loss and neglect.
In “Hospital Bed” (1993), a man holds his lover solemnly, the latter hooked up to an oxygen machine. Their embrace resembles a pietà, and recalls the many parallels that have been drawn between the suffering of Christ and queer martyrdom during the AIDS crisis. The same holds true for “Two Men and a Woman” (1992), in which a naked man lies in a bathtub filled with only a few inches of water. A woman, who likewise radiates a queer sensibility with her mullet-like haircut and button-up tucked into slacks, washes him attentively, her sleeves rolled up. A dark red washcloth glides over his chest, appearing almost like a gaping wound, and yielding a scene which calls to mind Doubting Thomas, who inserted his fingers into Jesus’ wound.
