Death Penalty Art Show
The Network held an international, all-media, juried art show on the death penalty in Austin, Texas at Gallery Lombardi May 6–22, 2006 entitled "Justice for All?: Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty". The show was juried by Annette Carlozzi, head curator of the Blanton Museum of Art's Contemporary and American Art collection; Lora Reynolds of Lora Reynolds Gallery; and Malaquias Montoya, artist and professor at UC Davis. More than 300 artists from 19 countries submitted more than 700 pieces of art to the show. The jury selected 55 works for the exhibition at Gallery Lombardi. The art show was funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. The death penalty art show was investigated under the "Notoriety for Profit" law by the Austin Police Department at the request of Andy Kahan, the City of Houston Mayor's Director of Crime-Victim Services. Kahan opposes the sale of art created by incarcerated people. A Gallery Lombardi spokesperson said they did indeed sell a drawing of a cross by an inmate for $50 - to a nun.
The Austin Chronicle called the art show "nothing short of powerful".
The art show was exhibited at Houston's M2 Gallery February 10–18, 2007.
A selection of the artworks from the show were exhibited in the Texas Capitol Building March 12–17, 2007, but a state representative personally removed two pieces of art on display at the Capitol that he found objectionable. State Rep. Borris Miles said the artworks were "extremely inappropriate and highly objectionable."
Read more about this topic: Texas Moratorium Network
Famous quotes containing the words death, penalty, art and/or show:
“I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear,
Till death like sleep might steal on me,”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“Wilful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement.... No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“Life is short, the art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult.”
—Hippocrates (c. 460–370 B.C.)
“Every boy was supposed to come into the world equipped with a father whose prime function was to be our father and show us how to be men. He can escape us, but we can never escape him. Present or absent, dead or alive, real or imagined, our father is the main man in our masculinity.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)