Indira Freitas Johnson and Garland Martin Taylor address societal issues through their mixed media sculptures and community involved projects. Gun violence, racism, immigration, and individual rights are among the topics conveyed in their assemblages, as they seek to heal and invoke dialogue. Influenced by her artist father, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and her social activist mother, Johnson creates forms reflecting non-violence from found objects and castings. Taylor channels his research of Henry Jackson Lewis, the first African American political cartoonist, as he welds bronze and stainless steel pieces with found materials such as skateboard parts, kinky hair, wood, stone, and pheasant feathers into 3-dimensional statements. Johnson’s sculptures of hands and feet convey a calm spirituality in our main gallery space along with an interactive grid prompting the viewer to consider how we label ourselves. Essay by curator Joanne Aono.

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