MARGARET EVANGELINE
GENERIC ART SOLUTIONS
One Hot Month, 2002-2014
silkscreen on photogram
49 x 84.5 inches
As the temperature climbs throughout the sweltering summer months in New Orleans, tempers flare, causing street crime and homicide numbers to jump dramatically. As the days go on and the temperature rises, it becomes common for citizens to read about death by gunshot almost daily. Many of us find ourselves frantically looking for familiar faces in the obituaries, if only to confirm the senseless tragedy of a loved one or neighbor who has fallen victim to gun violence. It is a bitter reality that when young men grow up in a culture flooded with guns, hotheaded youths settle their grievances with lead, not fists.
But gang violence and drug deals gone bad don’t account for all of these killings-there are many innocent victims as well. Babies are born innocent, but all too often they are born into dangerous and volatile environments. How, then, can these children be protected from their surroundings? Family? Religion? More guns?
The genesis of “One Hot Month” was initially an attempt to simply chronicle our environment by clipping the obituaries of “death by gunshot” victims during August 2002, when there was nearly one homicide per day. Their photographs, often outdated and blurry, immediately took the appearance of faded memories. They were hastily catalogued victims of an impulsive action; they were shot and killed in a heated moment-done and gone forever. But we felt these events shouldn’t be swept under the rug so easily. To us, these images represent the need for an examination of the roots of this terminal societal dysfunction.
For this exhibition, each victim’s picture was silkscreened in gloss black on a unique photogram of a broken handgun recovered from a citywide buyback program. This combines a shadowy effect on something of an x-ray, resulting in 27 haunting memorials laid out as days of the tragic calendar month in which they died. Here, the victims’ likenesses refuse to fade from a broken society threatened to be held captive by the increasingly impulsive actions of heavily armed and troubled youths.
MIAMI, Fl.— Miami Project and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery announce a special, invitation only presentation of the widely acclaimed traveling exhibition Guns In The Hands Of Artists at Miami Project’s fourth edition at The Deauville Resort Hotel (6701 Collins Ave.) during Miami Art Week from December 1-6, 2015. This iteration of the exhibition features thirty nationally known artists who have used over 180 decommissioned guns from the streets of New Orleans to create original works of art dealing with the issue of guns in our society. Artists include Mel Chin, Skylar Fein, Peter Sarkisian, Rico Gatson, Bradley McCallum, and Deborah Luster, who lost her mother to gun violence. The project has been featured in The Associated Press, Vice, Al Jazeera America, Sculpture Magazine, Art Pulse, The Atlantic, and most recently MSNBC.
In 1996 gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara and artist Brian Borrello organized the first Guns in the Hands of Artists exhibition in New Orleans—transforming guns removed from the city’s streets into original works of art. The persistence of violent gun crime in New Orleans and across America led Ferrara to reprise the project at his eponymous gallery in New Orleans in October of 2014 to coincide with the Prospect.3 biennial. In partnership with The Aspen Institute and The City of New Orleans, the exhibition has since been presented at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival and the Aspen Action Forum and at the Des Lee Gallery at Washington University in St. Louis. After this special presentation at Miami Project, the exhibition will travel to Chicago to be presented by Project &, and in 2017 it will be exhibited at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Additional dates and cities throughout the United States are in development.
“As an artist, activist and social entrepreneur, I asked myself, ‘What can I do to address this issue that pervades our society?’” said Jonathan Ferrara. “Putting together this exhibition is my way of doing something. It’s my goal to use art and the creative process to facilitate new, frank dialogue about gun violence. The exhibition fosters a new discourse by bringing the discussion into the realm of art; without the often partisan and polarized politics that surround the issue.”
Access to this special presentation of “Guns In The Hands Of Artists” at Miami Project is by invitation only. To request additional information please contact Andrew Freeman at andrew@bondpublicrelations.com or (504) 920-8012.
The fourth edition of Miami Project opens at The Deauville Resort with a VIP Preview from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1st. The fair is open to the public Wednesday December 2nd through Sunday, December 6th. For hours, images, or press passes contact Kelly Freeman at kelly@artmarketproductions.com or (212) 518-6912.
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To complement the exhibition, Ferrara is publishing a 220-page book featuring photographs of the artwork with a collection of essays on guns and gun violence by nationally known thought leaders including: Walter Isaacson, curator Dan Cameron, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, Maria Cuomo Cole, New Orleans’ Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu, Dan Gross of The Brady Campaign, Michael Waldman of The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, Lucia McBath mother of slain teen Jordan Davis, Rapper Lupe Fiasco, Poet E. Ethelbert Miller, Lolis Eric Elie, Trymaine Lee, Ace Atkins, Gregg Hurwitz, and Robert Crais. The book will be published by crowd-funding website Inkshares and will be available Spring 2016
Artists featured in Guns In The Hands Of Artists
Neil Alexander | Katrina Andry | Luis Cruz Azaceta | John Barnes | Ron Bechet | Brian Borrello | Mel Chin | Andrei Codrescu | Stephen Paul Day | Luke Dubois | Margaret Evangeline | Skylar Fein | Jonathan Ferrara | Rico Gatson | MK Guth | Generic Art Solutions | Marcus Kenney | Deborah Luster | Bradley McCallum | Adam Mysock | Sybille Perretti | Ted Riederer | Peter Sarkisian | Bob Tannen | Nicholas Varney | William Villalongo | Sidonie Villere | Paul Villinski
About Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is a collective environment of creative visions; a commercial gallery with a public conscience. Artist, activist, and entrepreneur Jonathan Ferrara opened the gallery in 1998 to give artists a voice. Since its inception, the gallery has focused on cutting edge works by local, national and international artists with a sense of purpose, mission, and message. In recent years, it has gained a national reputation and increasingly presents artists and exhibitions in cities across the US and in Europe including Miami Project during Art Basel Miami Beach, the VOLTA Fair in New York City and Basel, Switzerland, Texas Contemporary, Art Market San Francisco, and Seattle Art Fair as well as, working with museums, institutions and private collections across the country. For more information visit jonathanferraragallery.com
About Art Market Productions
Art Market Productions is a partnership between Jeffrey Wainhause, Max Fishko, and the dealers they work with. Since 2011 Art Market Productions has produced a different type of art fair that focuses on creating the highest quality fair experience by connecting collectors with dealers in the most optimal settings and contexts. Art Market Productions is dedicated to improving the art world by creating platforms and expanding networks of connection. Art Market Productions produces six fairs each year: Art on Paper, Art Market San Francisco, Market Art + Design, Seattle Art Fair, Texas Contemporary, and Miami Project. For more information visit artmarketproductions.com
MIAMI PROJECT + GUNS IN THE HANDS OF ARTISTS Exhibition Hours
Preview :::
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
5:00pm - 10:00pm
For tickets please visit: artmarketproductions.com/tickets
General Hours :::
Wednesday, 2 December through 5 December | 11:00am to 7:00pm
Sunday, 6 December | 12:00pm to 6:00pm
