Gordon Kurtti

Kurtti's prolific output – his crossing of visual art with literature, performance, and cinema – along with his connection to and activity within the nightclub milieu of the post punk "downtown" culture of New York City in the 1980s, when high culture merged with entertainment – is illustrative of the period before AIDS decimated an entire generation. In many opinions, such as that of writer Sarah Schulman, the loss of such potential arbiters as Kurtti changed the course of world culture forever.

Kurtti was a member of Allied Productions, a not-for-profit arts organization based in New York City. With Allied's collective umbrella as a resource and guide for social and aesthetic experimentation, he collaborated on performances, films and Arts in education workshops. Though his life was brief his output was relatively prolific - like many figures in this history of the fervent, feverish climate of New York City's Lower East Side in the '80s. He exhibited at ABC No Rio, Club Armageddon, Pyramid Club, 8BC and Life Café – the East Village hangout featured in Rent.

After art school he began training as an illustrator for advertisers and the fashion industry for burgeoning designer Diane Pernet and worked in the art department of The Limited Company. He collaborated with Carl George on a showroom design for Yumi Katsura, Japan's pre-eminent wedding gown designer and again collaborated on the fashion show launch event featuring a young Brooke Shields. Kurtti designed the stage and room decor one of the first AIDS fund-raising events for the Henry Grethel menswear line in 1986.

Kurtti collaborated on various art projects with many of his peers placing him within the circle of second generation of co-directors at Abc No Rio that included Jack Waters, Peter Cramer, and Carl George, and Colab predecessors Bradley Eros and Aline Mare - then performing as the partnership Erotic Psyche. This circle also included the artists Valerie Caris, Leslie Lowe, Brad Taylor, Leslie Lowe, Richard Hofmann, and Tony Pinotti among others. With this grouping Kurtti frequently performed and presented his work at the Pyramid Club and Danceteria. In 1984 Pfahler and Kurtti organized The Extremist Show at ABC No Rio . This was a watershed exhibition that coincided with the introduction of many of New York's sub-culture artists and groups. Included in the Extremist Show curation was the resident dance company of the Pyramid Club P.O.O.L., The performance series Church of the Little Green Man, The Cinema of Transgression featuring the films of Nick Zedd, Lydia Lunch and Richard Kern, Borbetomagus and Redtape Magazine. Kurtti was influenced by all of these, and he in turn contributed to their impact through his creative activities and his presence in their fomentation.

Gordon worked with theatrical producer Liz Dunn to create °∞One Night Stands°± at La Mama Cabaret in Ellen Stewart's legendary La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. He adopted the pseudonym Sketch Louis for his on site illustrations capturing performers like Hapi Phace, Edgar Oliver, Lypsinka (AKA John Epperson), Samoa, the theater group Watchface, Taboo! (AKA Stephen Tashjian), Kimberly Flynn among others. Kurtti also drew a spot-on caricature of Sam Shepard for the 1984 La Mama presentation of Shepard Sets, a series of three short plays: Suicide in B Flat, Angel City and Black Bog Beast. Kurtti proved himself to be a master of realist drawing with a wry sense of humor. Kurtti created and performed his work The Bearded Bride in the 1985 production Foho Tell Dreams at Danspace Project at Saint Mark's Church.

Gordon Stokes Kurtti (May 4, 1960 - April 18, 1987) was an American artist, writer, illustrator and performer. He was a seminal figure in the early East Village art scene of New York City's Lower East Side.