Enigmatically recognized as an artistic collaborator, curator, writer and archivist —Sur Rodney Sur is most renowned for his former position as co-director of the celebrated Gracie Mansion Gallery from 1983-1988. During the early to mid 1990s he served as a curator and archivist at Kenkeleba House, a Lower Manhattan African-American art institution, and was hired to assist with archiving the New School University’s art collection.

His work with artist estates, due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, led him to serve on the board of Visual AIDS (1994-2009) and help establish the Frank Moore Archive Project, to provide support for artists with HIV/AIDS and their estates.

Sur has organized an archive of his late spouse Geoffrey Hendricks, an artist associated with Fluxus, and his collaborator Brian Buczak, for the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections Northwestern University Libraries, and the Arleen Schloss papers for the Downtown Collection at NYU Fales Library.