“Real Art/Real World, Making Art for a Better Community”

“My super hero builds homes for low income families, poor people who live in violent neighborhoods, where there are liquor stores and low-performing schools,” writes Elijah Dunn, 14, a student artist featured in the City of Oakland Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery’s presentation of ArtEsteem Super Heroes. The exhibition of paintings and mixed media works created by students at Frick Middle School during the spring of 2006 explores such issues as poverty, drug abuse, gun violence, homelessness, education, and the environment. The student-artists have all produced works of art that reflect upon the current problems in their communities and the world. As a result the artworks in this exhibition are extremely personal and shockingly real. The students all recognize the need for positive change in their communities and these works of art offer up solutions for that change.

How exactly is change to occur? If only super heroes were real then we would have “Waterman,” created by Mashebu Barrow and Nicholas Wright, who provides everyone with enough clean water to drink. We would also have “Flame Man,” by Francisco Garcia, who protects people from violence with a force field and provides warmth for the homeless. Garcia created “Flame Man” to address some of the problems occurring in the violence stricken neighborhood of West Oakland. Then there is Marquis Halloway’s “Super Vest,” “a regular guy,” as Halloway explains, “that helps the world by keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and prevents shootings.” Well, if “Super Vest” is a regular guy, then perhaps we all are super heroes and have the ability to inflict positive change in our communities and the world not only for our benefit but for future generations as well.

As Shaniqua Johnson explains in “Lovely Angels,” with a magic pen and wand her super hero has powers to change the world and can create whatever she imagines. Johnson imagines a world where the environment and the animals are protected, while other students in the exhibition hope for a better, safer community. These artworks are visual statements by students no longer willing to live in a world that endangers their livelihood and the environment that they live in. As Divante Smith writes in “The Circle,” this super hero “helps the homeless, sick, hungry, and poor when the government can’t or won’t. “The Circle” fills the gaps for people who do not have access to the basic necessities of life, thereby creating a circle of life.” How ironic then that this presentation of overtly social and political artwork be exhibited within the atrium of the State of California Office building in downtown Oakland. With the raising of a hand and the flick of a pen, the government could easily pass legislation to prevent communities and the environment from falling to the wayside as seen in the students’ works of art. We wouldn’t need super heroes to protect us from the dangers lurking in the streets at night. All we would really need is each other.

ArtEsteem Super Heroes
March 12 – April 27, 2007
City of Oakland Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA 94612
http://www.oaklandculturalarts.org