Tampa artist Patrick Carew finds beauty in unexpected materials while exploring HIV, loss and the power of queer remembrance

Credit: Courtesy / Patrick Carew At first glance, some of Patrick Michael Carew’s artwork looks almost otherworldly: deep, oceanic jewel tones juxtaposed against a collage of noir-like silhouettes. Stare long enough, and the beauty begins revealing itself. Something in the textures transforms from ethereal to the every-so-slightly clinical. Each piece of his latest show, “On the Shoulders of Splendid Ones,” is part of a stunning, heartbreaking, and grief-stricken puzzle.  Carew wanted the work to be beautiful. “It is such a morbid topic, but how can I add some levity to it?” Carew told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “How can I make it really beautiful to bring people in? Because beauty is what people see first. And if it’s not attractive and desirable to look at it, people aren’t going to engage with it.” The work draws from Carew’s experience living with HIV, the history of the AIDS epidemic, and the lives and memories of those lost to it. Using his own body as a source of ma