Miami Herald - November 25, 2008
Kirsten Maguire, kmaguire@MiamiHerald.com

Because of art, he says, he has survived.

"When I go to paint, I'm in another world," he said. "It makes me want to be here, it makes me want to live, whereas other factors in life don't make me feel that."

Gross is one of about 100 artists featured in the Miami Beach Community Health Center's Through the Eyes of Love double art exhibit in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The art show, created to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, opens Tuesday at the Galleria mall, 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale.

Miami's exhibit will open on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, at the Harvey W. Seeds Post 29 American Legion Hall, 6445 NE Seventh Ave. Both galleries will close Dec. 14.

The art show, which is free, is not meant as a fundraiser. Instead, it is a way to remind people that the war against AIDS has not been won.

Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than 1.1 million people were living with HIV in the United States. And that number is growing.

"The epidemic is not over; there is no cure," said Orlando Taquechel, executive vice president of project management for the Miami Beach health center. "We want to make people aware that we are here for them, and it's important to continue the fight against AIDS."

About 250 works of painting, photography and sculpture depict the effects of HIV and AIDS.

"The exhibit gives a lot of beauty to the disease because our patients are healthy," said Kathryn Abbate, CEO of the Miami Beach center. "The emphasis is on prevention."

As part of the gallery, hundreds of blocks of the national AIDS Memorial Quilt line the halls. One reads: "I miss you, Daddy. If love could have saved you, you never would have died."

The exhibit also includes fashions designed by students from the Miami International University of Art & Design and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. The students crafted red dresses; some designers incorporated condoms into their styles.

The Fort Lauderdale and Miami shows will feature similar artwork, but while Miami's exhibit employs traditional gallery space, Fort Lauderdale's has a theme: "Think outside the box."

Using cardboard to line the walls, Fort Lauderdale shoe sculptor Robert Tabor transformed the exhibit's storefront into the inside of the box. When people leave the gallery, he hopes they will have a broader understanding of HIV/AIDS -- that they will think outside the box.

"The inside is before they get a dose of reality," he said. "My hope is that people will leave here with a better awareness that this disease is very much still going on."

Organizers hope the exhibit will become an annual tradition. They expect to continue hosting shows in both Fort Lauderdale and Miami to promote a collaborative prevention campaign in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. By spreading awareness, Abbate hopes to stop the spread of the disease.

"If we can prevent one person and one case, that can prevent 10 cases if we just give people the tools necessary," she said.

For some, that awareness came too late. Fort Lauderdale female impersonator Tom Mitchell has lost four friends, including three fellow impersonators, to AIDS.

To give the exhibit a human face, he donated costumes and portraits of his friends. When they were alive, they were at the forefront of the South Florida AIDS awareness campaign, he said.

As for Gross, he thinks the exhibit shows gratitude to people who work for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. No one is untouched by the disease, he said. "What's most important is the interconnectedness of this universe," Gross said. "None of us can do this on our own, and we all need help."

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