Art of Democracy: War and Empire September 4, 2008

Art of Democracy: War and Empire
Curated by Anne Trueblood Brodzky, DeWitt Cheng, and Art Hazelwood
With special consultation by Peter Selz

Sept. 4 - Nov. 4, 2008

According to Peter Selz, art historian and author of Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, “Not since the 1930s, facing the Great Depression and the impending danger of a Fascist New World Order, and the 60s with a previous illegal and immoral war, has there been such a great outpouring of political art. At the present, a great many artists, working in media, old and new, have again picked up their brushes, cameras or computers to protest against a foul war, destruction of the environment, obscene fiscal gains and abnegation of constitutional rights to express their rage and speak to the public.”

Artists across the country, animated by response to events of the last seven years and mobilized over the past two years by Art Hazelwood, a San Francisco-based printmaker, and Stephen A. Fredericks, president of the New York, Society of Etchers have organized a series of forty exhibitions entitled Art of Democracy. The exhibitions, spanning the United States from Washington State to New Hampshire, including Puerto Rico, will analyze what went wrong within this millennium with an America that was admired not so long ago. San Francisco’s non-profit Meridian Gallery will host the most comprehensive of the Bay Area shows, Art of Democracy: War and Empire, from September 4 to November 4. Each national exhibition and event has its own sub theme; Meridian Gallery chose War and Empire. In addition to the exhibition featuring more than forty artists, an extensive schedule of related films, concerts, and lectures is conceived as an integral component of the show.

Participating artists include Fernando Botero, Sandow Birk, Hung Liu, Enrique Chagoya, Bella Feldman, William T. Wiley, Pat Oliphant, and more.

Official Website: http://www.meridiangallery.org