Blue Crush by Pacifico Silano

Pacifico Silano is a lens-based artist whose work explores print culture, the circulation of imagery, and LGBTQ identity. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he received his BFA in Photography from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and his MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. In sourcing his work from gay erotic magazines from after Stonewall and before the AIDS epidemic, Silano fragments and rephotographs published imagery to meditate on loss, longing, and queer melancholy. In "Blue Crush", Silano juxtaposed the shoreline of Fire Island with a glimpse of a male nude. He has exhibited his work internationally in group shows at the Bronx Museum, ClampArt (New York City), Context (Miami), and Oude Ker (Amsterdam). Silano’s awards include the 2012 Aaron Siskind Foundation’s Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, the Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize (finalist), and the Pride Photo Awards’ First Prize in Amsterdam. The Warhol Museum included a selection of his work in the exhibition, Fantasy America, in the Fall of 2020. Silano participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in 2016.