Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
What does it mean for an artist to embed his lived queer experience into everyday objects? In the last years before his death of AIDS-related disease in 1989, Scott Burton created sculptures that started to lay bare the bodily, sexual, and social underpinnings of his practice. These semi-anonymous works often hide in plain sight as functional objects ready to be used and touched. He aimed for his work to be of service—even if they were not seen as art.
Hear from David Getsy, the award-winning historian of Burton’s art, for a lecture on how the human form came into focus in Burton’s final, lyric sculptures.
This program includes introductory remarks by Jess Wilcox, curator of "Scott Burton: Shape Shift," which is on view at Wrightwood 659 from October 3 to December 20, 2025.
What does it mean for an artist to embed his lived queer experience into everyday objects? In the last years before his death of AIDS-related disease in 1989, Scott Burton created sculptures that started to lay bare the bodily, sexual, and social underpinnings of his practice. These semi-anonymous works often hide in plain sight as functional objects ready to be used and touched. He aimed for his work to be of service—even if they were not seen as art.
Hear from David Getsy, the award-winning historian of Burton’s art, for a lecture on how the human form came into focus in Burton’s final, lyric sculptures.
This program includes introductory remarks by Jess Wilcox, curator of "Scott Burton: Shape Shift," which is on view at Wrightwood 659 from October 3 to December 20, 2025.
