Drawing Resistance - a traveling political art show

Reception: Saturday, June 12, 2004 7-9pm

http://www.drawingresistance.org

Flor y Canto is delighted to be the Los Angeles host for this amazing art

show!

Drawing Resistance is a show of two-dimensional artwork by 31

artist/activists from North America. Organized by Sue Simensky Bietila and

Nicolas Lampert, the content-based show speaks to subject matter vital to

understanding the world today. Some of the topics include the

anti-globalization movement, working class rights, the destruction of the

environment, corporate control, police brutality, homelessness,

gentrification and the Zapatista liberation movement in Mexico.

Rather than exhibiting Drawing Resistance in one city, the show travels to

cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis for a

5-year continuous period (2001-2005). In each city that the show is

exhibited, local hosts select the space and the events, which compliment the

traveling exhibition. Drawing Resistance has no funding and relies solely on

the communities that host the show to transport it to the next site. The

show's collective organizing method draws upon the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself)

culture, and like a punk band on tour; the art show is getting in the van!

In the first two years, Drawing Resistance has traveled over 5,000 miles to

over 19 cities in the US and Canada and countless numbers of individuals

have made the show unique to their own vision.

The show raises a number of vital questions that are not often considered.

The Detroit writer, David Sands stated that Drawing Resistance “doesn’t have

a lot to do with curators, museums, or hard-to-figure-out splotches on the

wall. Instead, it has much to do with what’s missing from most of the

me-me-me money-money-money world of contemporary art. That is, a sense of

urgency beyond one’s individual self; a feeling of anger-hope-responsibility

for the world and the people around us; a bridging between creative and

political realities that artists all too often choose to ignore.”

Three generations of political art are represented in Drawing Resistance.

Chicago artist, Carlos Cortez is old enough to remember the days of

Depression-era political art. Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper’s storyboard

magazine World War 3-Illustrated along with the legendary punk album-cover

art of Winston Smith (Dead Kennedy’s) and John Yates provide a crucial

bridge to the current generation. Styles range from the bright watercolors

of Domitila Dominguez (Questions & Swords: Folk Tales of the Zapatista

Revolution, written by Subcommandante Marcos) to the street posters of

Robbie Conal to the spray paint/stencils of Josh MacPhee to the collages of

Freddie Baer.

“Drawing Resistance is a bracing, enlivening panorama of radical humanism,

stretched wide by the expansive hopes and traumas of our times. Long may it

travel.” -- William Eisenstein, Urban Ecology

The web site for the show (www.drawingresistance.org) includes information,

artist biographies, the show schedule, press, in depth interviews and links.

The address was not displayed with the above post.

Here is the address for Drawing Resistance:

Flor y Canto Centro Comunitario and Bookstore

3706 N. Figueroa St.

Los Angeles, CA 90065

(323)276-1148

www.florycanto.org