John Giorno: No Nostalgia is an exhibition that highlights Giorno’s archive at the Marciano Art Foundation, revealing his collaborative methods and the friendships that sustained him. Dial-A-Poem returns here, offering 24-hour access to recordings by 132 poets, artists, musicians, and activists from across the Anglosphere. And beyond art, the show reflects Giorno’s character, his moral courage. His Buddhist practice, rooted in compassion and clarity, shaped his response to the AIDS crisis: through his AIDS Treatment Project, he provided rent, food, and medicine for those abandoned by the US government.
Less known is Giorno’s painting practice, born from the same impulse to reach people within and beyond the museum. With language as his medium, he brought his ear for a sharp phrase into the art world, infusing it with a mix of gravity and levity. The works gathered: text paintings, early prints, and rainbow canvases, form their own collective poem. They distill Giorno’s worldview: the delights of New York street life, Buddhist thought, and the raw immediacy of language. Like koans, they invite viewers to finish the thought, to carry the fragments into their own lives.
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