“Portrait of Kathy Acker” (1978) is a limited edition print by Jimmy DeSana. Printed posthumously and signed and numbered by the artist’s estate, this work was selected from a series of portraits the artist took of famed writer and friend Kathy Acker. “Portrait of Kathy Acker” (1978) is part of a larger series of commercial photographs of Downtown celebrities that DeSana carried out in the late 1970s alongside his work for artists’ magazines and periodicals like FILE, X Magazine, and SoHo Weekly News, as well as for musicians such as the Talking Heads and James Chance. This body of work also appeared in the artist’s first exhibition at Steffanoti Gallery (1979) and in P.S.1’s legendary New York/New Wave (1981).

Printed in an edition of 75, this 5 x 7” pigment print comes with a copy of Salvation, DeSana’s posthumous artist book, as well as a facsimile edition of Quotations from Jimmy DeSana, both published by Primary Information in spring 2024.

Jimmy DeSana (1949-1990) grew up in Atlanta, GA, and earned 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 and two-person exhibitions include Jimmy DeSana & Paul P.—Ruins of Rooms, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany, 2024 and The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, 2020. DeSana’s work can be found in numerous public collections including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others. A major retrospective of DeSana’s work was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, in 2022, accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Brooklyn Museum and DelMonico Books.

5 x 7 inches
Pigment print
Edition of 75 + 5 APs
Stamped and numbered by the Artist’s Estate
August 2024