The exhibit David Wojnarowicz: ‘some day this will all be crumbling ruins’ was exhibited at The Modern Institute’s Carlton Place gallery in Glasgow, Scotland May 6 – August 28, 2026.
The show includes disparate painting, sculpture, photography, films, ephemera and a reproduction of David’s Gagging Cow mural in an evocative display set within a crumbling Georgian townhouse and warehouse. The setting invokes the Ward Line building on Pier 34 in the Hudson River where David found inspiration in the summer of 1983. Curators explain “The piers located on the Hudson River waterfront of Lower West Side Manhattan were vital to David Wojnarowicz’s friendships, politics, writing, sexual life and art practice – if they can be separated.”
Modern Institute curators refer to this artistic scene as “a full-scale occupation of the space,” that allowed David and close friends—Mike Bidlo, Luis Frangella, Jean Foos, Ruth Kligman, David Finn and others—to create large-scale works documented by photographers Peter Hujar, Dirk Rowntree, and Andreas Sterzing.
Curators also note “For one of his contributions, Wojnarowicz threw seeds onto the debris and fallen plaster of its empty rooms, allowing grass to grow in the ruins. All of this activity didn’t escape notice from the city authorities and it was demolished the following year.”
