A self-taught (or non-academy) artist, Athey has been working in a physical, philosophical, and esoteric performance practice ranging from solo work to 50-person operas. Evolving out of Los Angeles underground music scenes, he started showing Premature Ejaculation in 1981, influenced by noise pioneers Throbbing Gristle and the Viennese Actionists, as well as local Los Angeles legend Johanna Went. His 1990s response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic created a trilogy of company work that resonated first person in that disastrous time period. When under heat from the mid-1990s culture wars in the US, Athey made second homes at the Institute of CA- London; Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana; and Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Ciudad de México, as well as first development residencies at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, and Kampnagel, Hamburg. Embracing and fighting labels such as abject, AIDS, and post-porn, Athey considers archetype work the connecting thread through each era. He has collaborated for 20 years on vocal-based projects with Juliana Snapper, Opera Povera, and, more recently, Carmina Escobar. In 2021, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amelia Jones–curated survey show Queer Communion: Ron Athey opened at Participant Inc, New York, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, with performances, workshops, talks, and screenings.