I swung by Art for Amnesty's "Art for Social Justice" exhibit at Urban Zen after seeing it flood my timeline on Friday night. I missed the opening night (private) festivities (and Usher and Donna Karan). Womp.
Luckily, I swung by on Saturday, not even knowing that 1) there was an event for the exhibit featuring the actual artists and; 2) the exhibit was only open to the public for ONE day.
Here are a few of the most striking pieces:
"Entre Chien Et Loup 2014 (Between Wolf and Dog: French Expression Describing Dusk)" by Jerome Lagarrigue. If the person looks familiar, it's because it's Shaun Ross. You may remember hm from Beyonce's "Pretty Hurts" video.
The aforementioned Usher video, "Chainz":
The centerpiece of the exhibit, I think (.I'm guessing because it was right in front of the stage) was "Chaisz". I'm also completely guessing that there's no coincidence between this part of the exhibition being called "Chains" given its the title of the Usher video.
"All Deliberate Speed" by Hank Willis Thomas. The top image is what the photo looks like to the naked eye. Using a camera flash, the image becomes clear:
Sophia Dawson:
Spike Lee fans with recognize the painting in the lower left as "Radio Raheem" from Lee's "Do the Right Thing".
In case you forgot:
Unfortunately, I didn't see a placard with the artist's name near this (West?) African mask. The beading is exquisite.
"Hopeless" by Ashish "Hash"Patel. If you look closely, you can see the names of victims of gun violence in the AK47:
Ronald A. Draper. In case you didn't catch it, the kid in the middle is Malcolm X:
From Atikur Abdul, Eric Garner's haunting last words...
