Ivan Monforte (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈiβam moɱˈfoɾte]; born 1973) is a Mexican performance artist based in New York.
His work often uses "simple gestures and materials, as well as emotional language and content, as strategic tools to address themes of loss and mourning, representations of class, gender, race and sexuality, as well as the pursuit of love.
Monforte has "worked in HIV prevention education, testing, and social marketing with a special focus on disenfranchised communities, such as homeless adolescents, immigrants, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.
His project entitled "Play Smart" trading cards in collaboration with Amos Mac, Richard Renaldi and Christopher Schulz starts a dialogue for Mexican immigrants, especially those of the gay community.
The show was sponsored by Visual AIDS, the same artist organization with whom Monforte also produced Play Smart (2012) trading cards.
[5] Ivan Monforte produced a social sculpture in 2007 at the Longwood Art Gallery in Bronx, New York, in which free and confidential HIV tests were provided.
Monforte said on the project that "it often became an opportunity to talk about art, public health, activism, and AIDS, and their relationship to each other, as well as educate people about HIV prevention, testing, and treatment."
At this point, an anonymous committee decided the tests could not take place in a kitchen "where food was prepared and could potentially pose a health hazard.
1 Contemporary Art Center, "Ivan Monforte works with a different kind of found material -- verbal insults and put-downs he has heard or experienced.
Play Smart trading cards were created using photographs by Monforte, Amos Mac, Richard Renaldi and Christopher Schulz.
In 2010, Ivan Monforte wrote an essay entitled "House and Ball Culture Go Wide" for The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide.
[9] In 2011, Monforte participated in the How to Cut a Queen discussion with New Museum resident Wu Tsang and Jonathan Oppenheim, editor of the 1990 documentary "Paris is Burning."
The discussion "revisits the context and impact of Paris is Burning and considers the role that editing plays in documentary storytelling and the politics of representation.