The Art of Democracy
By Jennifer Modenessi
Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm in Uncategorized.
I don’t know about you but I’ve already had my fill of election coverage. I’m tired of - and frankly disappointed - by the increasingly contentious back-and-forth between America’s most prominent political parties. That’s why I’m heading to “The Art of Democracy: War and Empire” at San Francisco’s Meridian Gallery this weekend in an attempt to get my mind back where it belongs this political season: on the issues.
And does this exhibit address them: war, destruction of the environment, corruption and violations of constitutional rights. 40 artists including Fernando Botero, Enrique Chagoya, Eric Drooker, Bella Feldman, Art Hazelwood, Hung Liu, Rigo 23 and others contribute paintings, assemblages, prints, sculptures and more. It’s one of forty exhibitions across American entitled “Art of Democracy” organized by Hazelwood and New York Society of Etchers president Stephen A. Fredericks. According to the press release, the exhibitions were created in an attempt to “analyze what went wrong within this millenium with an America that was admired not so long ago.”
The exhibit runs 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays through Nov. 4 at 535 Powell St., S.F. Call 415-398-7229 or visit www.meridiangallery.org for more information.
Here’s are a peek:
“Poppies/Amapolas” an etching by Fernando Marti
“Apartheid Wall” by Erik Drooker
“Oh America” by Gee Vaucher
To view Francisco Botero’s “Abu Ghraib 72″ from his series depicting torture at the infamous prison, follow the link. Warning: Strong content.
“Abu Ghraib 72″ by Francisco Botero
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October 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Thanks for the nice writeup. As one of the curators, I may be a bit biased, but I think it’s a very important show. Americans have abdicated the civic spirit that the Founding Fathers deemed essential to democracy, in favor of small-minded self-seeking. The Bush disaster is but the culmination of a quarter century of the greed-is-good privatization mania (not that Democrats are blameless, either, of course). The decisions that voters took so lightly in 2000 and 2004 have come back with a vengeance — and considerable interest and late fines. We need a change in our mentality, and this show, and the other AOD shows, which, unfortunately too many red-state rugged individualists will heartily scoff at in their enthusiasm for the new GOP “outsiders,” are part of the solution.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
[...] not be shocked by pairing the appalling with the beautiful. Fernando Marti’s Poppie/Amapolas, which can be viewed here, pairs orange jumpsuited detainees bound by plastic wrist cords kneeling within the confines of a [...]