The opening night reception for the death penalty art show was an exciting night. Many of the artists were present, some traveling from other states, including Melinda Wing from Arizona and Rita Fuchsberg from Vermont.

The following awards were announced:

“Best in Show” ($500) went to Isabelle Heitzmann of Paris, France for “Lethal Injection (Barbie Jail Fun series)”, mixed media, 28x30x61 cm. Artist’s Audio Statement.

Second place ($250) went to Annie Feldmeier Adams of Chicago for “Last Supper Trading Cards”, cardstock and ink, 3.25″ x 4.25″, set of 52 cards. Artist’s Audio Statement.

Third place ($175) was Jason Archer of Austin for “War Tribunal”, Giclee Print, 24 x 16 in. Artist’s Audio Statement.

Two merit awards of $50 each went to Mark Jenkinson of New York City for “Ricky Langley”, Digital C print, 30 X 40 inches. Artist’s Audio Statement.

and Thomas Buchner of Germany for his series “World Wide Patent Fig. 1, 2, 3”; Adhesive tape on printed drawing, 29,8 cm x 21 cm. Artist’s audio statement.

The jury also gave an award for “Best Work by an Artist on Death Row” ($175), which went to Robert Perez, who is on Texas’ Death Row for his two pencil drawings, “Texas Executioner”, 22×14 and “Yellow Rose for Friendship”, 14×12 in.

The “Viewers Choice Award” ($100), which was selected by a vote of the opening night reception attendees, went to Ben Woitena of Houston for his work “Dead Man Walking” of painted steel, masonite, plexiglass, photo-montage & xerox copies, 39-38″H x 27″W x 3-1/4″D. Artist’s Audio Statement: Artist’s Audio Statement.

Sometime this week, we will have all the images online at www.deathpenaltyartshow.org.

The artshow runs through May 22 at Gallery Lombardi in Austin, 910 West Third Street. Hours are noon to 6 PM, Tuesday through Saturday.

On May 11 at 7 PM, there will be a gallery talk conducted by one of the jurors, Annette Carlozzi, curator of contemporary and American art at the Blanton Museum. The gallery talk will be held at Gallery Lombardi.

Media Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 2, 2006

Death Penalty Art Show
Opening Night Reception May 6, 2006
Gallery Talk on May 11
Exhibition May 6-22, 2006 in Austin, Texas
910 West 3rd Street, Google Map

Austin, Texas – Texas Moratorium Network is holding an international, all-media, juried art exhibition entitled “Justice for All?: Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty” in Austin at Gallery Lombardi from May 6-22, 2006. The purpose of the art show is to foster the creation of new artwork on the death penalty and to encourage and enhance civic engagement and dialogue about the death penalty.

The opening night reception is May 6 at 7 PM.

There will be a gallery talk on May 11 at 7 PM, conducted by Annette Carlozzi, Curator of American and Contemporary Art at the Jack S. Blanton Museum Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin.

Media representatives may arrange for a pre-show visit to the gallery on either May 4th or 5th by calling Scott Cobb at 512-689-1544.

Jurors for the art show were: Annette Carlozzi; Lora Reynolds, owner of Lora Reynolds Gallery in Austin. Lora Reynolds Gallery presents contemporary art in all mediums by established and emerging, national and international artists; and Malaquias Montoya, an artist and professor of art at the University of California, Davis.

More than 300 artists submitted around 700 pieces of artwork for the jury to consider. There were submissions from 38 U.S. states and 19 countries. Artworks on display will include sculpture, paintings, video, photography, and installation art. There will be 54 works on display from 50 artists. The exhibition includes art from 13 artists currently on Texas death row, one person whose Texas death sentence was commuted to life in 1972, and one person whose death sentence was commuted to life by Governor Ryan of Illinois.

Using an innovative system provided by a company called Guide by Cell (www.guidebycell.com), visitors to the art show will be able to listen to audio recordings about individual artworks by calling a number on their cell phones and punching in a number corresponding to the artwork they are looking at. In most cases, the descriptions will be recorded by the artists themselves. Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to share their own thoughts on the art work by recording their own statements, which will be posted on the website at www.deathpenaltyartshow.org.

This art show is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

List of artists whose work was selected by the jury to be exhibited at Gallery Lombardi, May 6-22, 2006.

Annie Feldmeier Adams Chicago IL USA

Jill Alo Austin TX USA

John Amador Polunsky Unit TX USA

Keith “BB” Amante Austin TX USA

Jason Archer Austin TX USA

William Berkley Polunsky Unit TX USA

David Blow Hickory Creek TX USA

Samuel Brown Minneapolis MN USA

Thomas Buchner Ampfing Germany

Anibal Canales, Jr Polunsky Unit TX USA

Russell Castillo, Jr Liberty Hill TX USA

Barbara Caveng Berlin Germany

Ebbesen Davis Austin TX USA

Reinaldo A. Dennes Polunsky Unit TX USA

Cristina Ferran-Jadick Houston TX USA

Rita Fuchsberg Poultney VT USA

Tania Guerrera Mount Vernon NY USA

Vincent Gutierrez Polunsky Unit USA

Isabelle Heitzmann Paris France

Linda Hesh Alexandria VA USA

Jasmin Hilmer Hamburg Germany

Renaldo Hudson Sumner IL USA

Mark Jenkinson New York, New York, USA

Michael W. Jewell Powledge Unit TX USA

Lou Jones Boston MA USA

Stan Kaplan Levittown NY USA

Jim Krantz Chicago IL USA

Robert Kunec Halle/Saale, Germany

Jenn Lindberg Austin TX USA

Ahren Lutz Portland OR USA

Kate MacDonald Vancouver BC Canada

Farley C. Matchett Polunsky Unit TX USA

Michelle Mayer Austin TX USA

Misty Morris Aiken SC USA

Khristian Oliver Polunsky Unit TX USA

Scott L. Panetti Polunsky Unit TX USA

Louis Castro Perez Polunsky Unit TX USA

Robert Perez Polunsky Unit TX USA

Bogdan Perzynski Austin TX USA

Shanon Playford Portland OR USA

Roger Preston Las Vegas NV USA

Arnold Prieto Polunsky Unit TX USA

Travis Runnels Polunsky Unit TX USA

Stephanie Saint Sanchez Houston TX USA

Shannon Stoney Houston TX USA

Carlos Trevino Polunsky Unit TX USA

Carlton A. Turner Polunsky Unit TX USA

Collin W Williams Montevallo AL USA

Melinda Wing Phoenix AZ USA

Ben Woitena Houston TX USA

Peter Wortel Haren The Netherlands

###

The Texas Young Democrats adopted a platform last weekend that contained this line:

7.10. We oppose state-sponsored capital punishment.

Read the whole platform.

Texas Young Democrats has been in existence since 1932. Texas Young Democrats brings together young democrats, inclusive of high school and college students, youth leaders, and young professionals to build a brighter future for all Texans. TYD is the state’s premier organization that promotes political activism by young progressives to influence the political process and elect Democratic leaders throughout the state. We gather in local clubs, statewide executive committee meetings, and an annual convention in Austin to share insights, debate issues, develop leadership skills, and build lasting friendships with like-minded young people all across Texas.

TYD has a long tradition of electing its former members to office, and TYD alumni can be found at all levels of public service and in influential roles in many Texas communities. We boast lifetime members, such as Gov. Ann Richards, John Sharp, Garry Mauro, and Lena Guerrero. As a statewide organization, and chartered member of the Young Democrats of America and College Democrats of America, TYD provides opportunities for young people to meet fellow activists, work on campaigns and with local party officials, learn the ins and outs of politics, improve personal skills, and, yes, have fun.

The response to our Death Penalty Art Show from artists around the world has been amazing. (Pictured above is “The Anomie” by Misty Morris). More than 300 artists submitted around 700 pieces of art for our jury to consider. Last Saturday, the three jury members met in Austin. One of them, Malaquias Montoya, flew all the way from Sacramento with his wife Lezlie just to be on the jury. The other two jury members live in Austin – Annette Carlozzi and Lora Reynolds. The jurying process started at 9 AM and took all day. In the end, the jury selected 50 artworks for the exhibition at Gallery Lombardi in Austin from May 6-22. We were all frustrated that we could not select more art for the Lombardi exhibition, but the gallery does not have enough space for more.

We are searching for an exhibition space in Houston where we can exhibit more of the 700 works that were submitted. We hope to find a space and take the death penalty art show to Houston after its Austin run. We may also have another art show in Austin in the Fall, so that we can show more of the artwork.

In the meantime, on May 6, we will post all 700 or so images of death penalty art that were submitted to us onto the website www.deathpenaltyartshow.org. We want all of these amazing artists to have a large audience for their important work. 100 years from now, when people look back and try to understand early 21st century civilization, they may well turn to some of these artists for insight, just as people look at Picasso’s Guernica to understand the horrors of early 20th century life.

We plan to make the website www.deathpenaltyartshow.org a central depository for death penalty related art. We will invite artists to continue to upload images of their new death penalty art to the site and add their work to the online exhibition. We will create a database of death penalty art on the site, so that gallery owners, anti-death penalty organizations and others who want to create their own death penalty art shows around the United States or elsewhere will be able to come to deathpenaltyartshow.org and search the database for artwork. Then, they can select art that they like and contact the artists to ask them to participate in their art show.

We hope people will use the deathpenaltyartshow.org database to create death penalty art shows across the country and use the art shows as opportunities to engage their communities in dialogues regarding the issue of the death penalty.

We have been busy entering all the data for the art show submissions into a database and getting everything ready for the three jurors to look at them Saturday morning. Malaquias Montoya is flying in from California Friday. The two other jurors, Annette Carlozzi and Lora Reynolds, live in Austin. More than 300 people submitted entries totaling about 700 artworks. We expect the jurying process to last all day Saturday and we hope to send out notifications to the artists by Monday.

The show opens May 6 in Austin.