Sur Rodney (Sur), widely recognized as an archivist, curator, artistic collaborator, lover, surrealist, and cultural commentator, arrived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan from Montreal in 1976 as a resident alien. A key figure in the East Village art scene, he served as co-director of the celebrated Gracie Mansion Gallery from 1983 to 1988. In the early 1980s, Fred Carl introduced Sur to Isaac Jackson, who founded the Blackheart Collective—an artists’ collective for Black gay men—in 1980. Sur performed with the group during this formative period. Though short-lived, the Collective is considered an early iteration of what would later become Other Countries; in fact, roughly half of Other Countries’ founding members emerged from the Blackheart Collective. By the early 1990s, Sur began attending and participating in Other Countries workshops, answering Assotto Saint’s powerful call: “Do not abandon your brothers.” His extensive work and presence in the scene have been documented in a feature in Frieze magazine, highlighting his role in “freaking out” the art world by shaking up conventional archival and curatorial approaches and foregrounding queerness, racial identity, and temporal disruption.
Sur Rodney (Sur)
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