In a 1968 speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Those words, inspired by 19th-century abolitionist Theodore Parker, are engraved on the South Wall of King’s Washington, D.C., memorial. Barack Obama often quoted them, and even had them woven into an Oval Office rug. And now, North Las Vegas’ Left of Center Art Gallery has themed a new art show around them.
“Hands Up or I’ll Shoot” by Dayo Adelaja
Curator and gallery director Marylou Parker says gallery founder and director Vicki Richardson thought the time was right for Bending Toward Justice, considering the events of the past year. “We wanted to provide an opportunity [for artists] to be part of what’s going on, to stand up for justice right now.”
The by-appointment-only show features 15 creatives, including many well-known Las Vegans including former Clark County Poet Laureate Vogue Robinson; accomplished painter Harold Bradford; and Chase R. McCurdy, who currently has a solo exhibition up at UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art.
“We hope that this will offer some hope that there are still people in the world that are willing to stand up and fight for what’s right,” Parker says.
A close-up of “Resilience” by Saundra Lyle
The group show offers a kaleidoscope of perspectives and methods of looking at social justice. Sociology professor-turned-artist Robin Brownfield presents mosaic portraits of people who have been killed by the police. “They’re very powerful pieces,” Parker says, explaining they gave her goosebumps while she was hanging them.
Diane Bush offers a spray-painted coronavirus ball. “She’s just so brilliant,” Parker says. “You just have to come see it. It’s a really amazing piece.”
Lance L. Smith brings a charcoal rendering of the artist’s mother titled “No One in the World.” Smith says the portrait serves as “an acknowledgment of the presence and teaching from Black maternal energies on how to navigate an [unjust] world.”
Artist Orlando Montenegro depicts pilgrims at the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Bobbie Ann Howell, known for her intricate cut-paper designs, has two pieces in the show: one inspired by the #MeToo movement and another titled “176-Souls-People-Bodies,” about the Ukrainian flight shot down in January 2020.
Additional participating artists include Dayo Adelaja, Sylvester Collier, Denise R. Duarte, Adolfo Gonzalez and Saundra Lyle. “I hope that [viewers] see the messages behind the work,” Parker says. “I hope that they will feel what the artists felt when they were creating this piece.”
Note: Social distancing protocols are in place and gallery capacity is limited. Advance reservations required.
Bending Toward Justice February 10-April 30, by appointment, free. Left of Center Art Gallery, 2207 W. Gowan Road, 702-647-7378, leftofcenterart.org.
“4 Ronnie: He Was by Far That One” by Jeff Scheid
Obsidian & Neon
Las Vegas photographer Jeff Scheid and writer/CSN prof Erica Vital-Lazare are collaborating on a powerful project, a portrait and profile series titled Obsidian & Neon: Building Black Life and Identity in Las Vegas. Three important portrait-profiles from it debut in Bending Toward Justice. Vital-Lazare says they illustrate “three facets of the Black American experience with social justice and policing.”
• Activist Tenisha Freedom. A leader in “Organize the State Out,” Freedom was one of the first to mobilize Las Vegas protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Freedom is pictured by the Bonanza Road murals of Malcolm X and Tupac Shakur.
• Second-ever Black Assistant Sheriff Greg McCurdy. The 30-year police veteran chose to be photographed on the West Side, where he grew up, with his commendation.
• Teena Acree, whose uncle Byron Williams was killed by police action. In 2019, Williams was pursued by police for not having bicycle lights as he traveled down Bonanza Road and MLK Boulevard. The coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide. Acree flew to Las Vegas to have her portrait taken at the location where her uncle died. “It’s just a haunting photograph,” Vital-Lazare says. “There’s so much dignity and grief in it.” Vital-Lazare says Scheid’s image captures “the persistence in which she wants to pursue justice for her uncle but also wants to make sure that policy changes, so no other family will have to endure such hardship again.”
