Given the racial landscape of the US in recent months surrounding the decisions in both the Michel Brown and Eric Garner cases, RESPOND which is currently on view in Brooklyn at Smack Mellon, really gets at the heart of the matter. Smack Mellon organized the show given the public response to the controversial verdict in the grand jury decision not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Garner. Garner was killed on July 17th in Staten Island when a New York City police officer put him in a choke hold.

Smack Mellon directors Kathleen Gilrain and Suzanne Kim, changed their exhibition schedule to accommodate this show. The show features the work of two hundred artists and the gallery received over six hundred submissions for the exhibition. The 200 pieces of art fill the Smack Mellon space to an overwhelming capacity. Almost every square inch of the gallery is being occupied by a work of art. Many of the works are displayed salon style in the two story high gallery space. The works in the RESPOND show are diverse and feature a range of artists and mediums including video, sculpture, installation, photography and even textile work.

Skinned by Hannah Hart

Given the show’s theme and the overwhelming response to the call for work, the pieces featured in the exhibition are on point. Some of the artists featured in the show include Dread Scott who has also had work shown at the Whitney Museum of Art, Heather Heart who currently has work on view at the Brooklyn Museum, and Mel Chin who has exhibited at the Museum of Modern. There are also other artists featured in the show who are not as well known such as Rashid Johnson, a prison inmate from Texas. Johnson had his drawing mailed to be included in the exhibition. Johnson’s piece like several others within the exhibition looks at the way in which history informs the larger social times we live in; and how history does repeat itself.

Red Light, Green Light by Jeffery Sims

Smack Mellon is also one of the latest galleries that has organized shows around the Garner and Brown cases which calls to attention the protests surrounding racial tensions across the U.S. The Alliance of Black Artists Galleries located in St. Louis held an exhibition in October entitled Hands Up: Don’t Shoot Artists Respond which took place in several venues throughout the city including Ferguson. There has even been a push within the art world to involve museums in the growing movement to call attention to these senseless acts of violence through art.

For Til (Quilt Collage #1) by Damien Davis

RESPOND taps into feelings of anger and grief which are still very fresh in the public’s mind. The exhibition also points to the overwhelming issues of racial and economic injustice, class, and how these elements have contributed to the cycle of violence. Change and how people can move forward from these tragedies is also another huge underpinning of this show. Many of the pieces in RESPOND are calling for this larger change and point the the power that art has to do just that.

The show is on view until February 22. Smack Mellon is located at 48 Plymouth Street in DUMBO and is open 12-7 PM Monday-Friday. There are also various events related to the exhibition that will be occurring in the gallery throughout January and February. Please refer to Smack Mellon’s webiste for a listing of these events.
–Anni Irish