In the wake of unspeakable tragedies in Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH—the latest manifestations of the hundreds of mass shootings preceding them—Violence Transformed presents a sampling of work featured in past Violence Transformed exhibitions that speaks to this cycle of violence. With a chief focus on confronting the pervasive nature of gun violence in America as well as hope for a better future, artists shown here include Bob McMackin who created a moving video tribute to the 2018 March for Our Lives; Beverly Rippel who was featured in the 2018 exhibition Guns and Gun Violence: Too Many, Too Close at Cambridge College; Gail Bos who uses chairs to evoke the absence and memory of victims lost to gun violence; Hope Ricciardi whose painting “Emma’s Words” was inspired by the poem written by Emma Lazarus and inscribed on the Statue of Liberty (declaring America as a place where immigrants are embraced—not targeted); and Rachel Asarnow, whose papercut art embodies the vitality of life, and the nature of memory.
Celebrating the Transformative Power of Art