From the perspective of cultural history, the most notable of these exhibitions probably is Ecstatic Antibodies, Resisting the AIDS Mythology, which, under the auspices of the Arts Council of Great Britain, toured to various institutions in the UK from 1988 to 1990. Gupta and queer arts activist Tessa Boffin jointly curated this exhibition and edited the book, initially published to accompany the show and subsequently reprinted as an independent volume, providing valuable insights into the epidemic.

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From the beginning, Gupta and Boffin intended the project to challenge stereotyped portrayals of individuals with AIDS as objects of fear, revulsion, and pity. To this end, they commissioned both art works and essays from artists involved in communities that had been deeply affected by AIDS. Participating in the exhibition were the most significant, cutting-edge queer artists, then active in the UK, including Isaac Julien, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Allan deSouza, Lynn Hewett, and Pratibha Parmar, among others.

For Ecstatic Antibodies, Gupta created No Solutions as a response to the policies of Avtar Singh Paintal, Director-General of the Indian Council for Medical Research, who wanted to ban sex by Indians with foreigners and Non-Resident Indians, as a means of preventing AIDS. As a counterpoint to pronouncements by Paintal (displayed in the exhibition), Gupta produced four large photographs of himself and his British partner, portrayed in their living room in various scenarios, ranging from casual conversation, seated on a coach, to nude embrace. These photographs of an interracial couple challenge the xenophobic proposals of Paintal.

Displayed in pairs with the photographs were four large paintings and drawings of Hindu deities. In opposition to the health minister's pronouncements, the religious images remind viewers of the openness to sexual and gender diversity often characteristic of Hinduism in earlier historical periods. In this regard, it is significant that the poses of Gupta and his partner recall the arrangements of sculpted figures of lovers on the exteriors of medieval temples at Khajuraho and elsewhere in northern India.

Art Works of the Later 1980s

Many of the political concerns that motivated Gupta's cultural activism are evident as well in his own artistic projects from the mid-1980s onwards.

For the group exhibition, Reflections of the Black Experience (1986, Brixton Art Gallery), Gupta created a series of photographs about British Asian life. Although the photographers participating in the exhibition were expected to produce objective documentation of the lives of immigrants, Gupta approached the project in a very different way: faking scenes related to a variety of immigrant issues (Fear, Elderly, Family, among others). Although his use of black and white film conformed to the expectations of documentary photography, he revealed the staged nature of his images through dramatic effects (strong contrasts of light and shade, diagonal compositions, etc.), which deliberately recalled film noir of the 1940s.

Included in the Black Experience series, the photograph Gay shows Gupta standing with his arm around his British partner. In the background, a movie theater marquee advertises Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Launderette (1985), a popular film written by Hanif Kureishi concerning the relationship of a Pakistani man with an Englishman. Looking directly outwards, Gupta and his partner seem to be inviting the viewer to participate in a world with blurred racial boundaries.

Although Gupta's earliest gay-themed work focused primarily on white subjects, he became increasingly concerned with broadening queer art to encompass non-white, especially South Asian, men. Therefore, in 1986, he utilized a commission from Photographer's Gallery to create Exiles, a series of photographs of the lives of gay men in New Delhi, his hometown. Gupta hoped that this project would help combat the invisibility of gay men in his native country and to promote queer cultural activity there.

Because homosexual acts are punishable by up to ten years in prison, gay life in India has been concealed by "an intimidating wall of silence," as Gupta explained in Pictures from Here (2003).

The emergence of HIV/AIDS has intensified the prevalent conception of homosexuality as a deadly Western disease. According to Gupta, most gay men in India acquiesce to family pressures by marrying women and living in the closet. As Gupta did for much of his adult life, many Indian men who are committed to an openly gay lifestyle have chosen to live in Western societies, despite having to confront racism and other forms of oppression.