Jimmy DeSana (b. 1949, Detroit, MI – d. 1990, New York, NY), a key figure in the New York downtown scene of the 1970s and 80s, created a body of photography that evinces a singular style typified by concealed figures, saturated colors, and surreal mise-en-scène, with subject matter that index the artist’s fascination with American suburbia and queer fetish subculture in equal measure. Throughout his career, DeSana seamlessly blended the tropes of fashion photography, camp sensibility, and experimental art, resulting in images that are simultaneously relatable in their use of quotidian settings, yet entirely otherworldly in their depiction. DeSana grew up in Atlanta, GA, and received his bachelor’s degree from the Georgia State University in 1972 before relocating to New York’s East Village in the early 1970s. Recent solo exhibitions include Jimmy DeSana: Submission at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2023, accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Brooklyn Museum and DelMonico Books; The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, 2020; and Remainders, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, 2016. DeSana’s work can be found in numerous public collections including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Ruin of Rooms, a major two-person exhibition of the work of Jimmy DeSana and Paul P., at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, was on view in 2024.
