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MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE, 2009
Media contact: Kathy MacPherson, galleryinfo@otis.edu, 310.665.6909
The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the exhibition:
Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition…
October 3 – December 12, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday October 3, 2009, 4-6pm
The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the exhibition Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition . . . opening to the public on Saturday, October 3, with an exhibition tour with the artist at 3:15pm followed by a public reception 4pm-6pm; on view through December 12.
Dedicated to the Proposition. . . is a solo exhibition of San Francisco based artist Travis Somerville organized by the OTIS Ben Maltz Gallery and travelling in 2010 through 2011. The exhibition presents a new body of work including painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. The exhibition title refers to Abraham Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg Address delivered during the Civil War: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” In this speech, Lincoln asks the nation to honor its fallen by challenging its citizens to fully realize and achieve “. . . a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The election of Barack Obama in January 2009 just days prior to the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in Hardin Town, Kentucky, seems to fulfill the commitment that Lincoln makes to the soldiers interred at Gettysburg. However there is still much work to be done in uniting and healing the nation. With this body of work, Somerville explores the complex inheritance of a nation trying to live up to Lincoln’s challenge of being a nation not divided, but truly “dedicated to the proposition…” The artist is interested in investigating the tension and contradiction in America’s realization of equality and freedom for all between the numerous examples of the nation’s success manifest in Obama’s election and first 100 days and the nation’s failure evidenced by the enduring and shameful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Travis Somerville was born in 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia to white civil rights activists—an Episcopal preacher and school teacher—and grew up in various cities and rural towns throughout the Southern United States. The geography of his upbringing is important to mention because the cultural implications of
Object Description
| Exhibition | Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition... |
| Artist(s) | Somerville, Travis |
| Title | Press release for "Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition..." |
| Year | 2009 |
| Decade(s) | 2000s |
| Curator(s) | Linton, Meg |
| Description | For immediate release: June 2009. |
| Gallery | Ben Maltz Gallery |
| ImageID | SomervillePR |
| Collection | Ben Maltz Gallery Exhibition Archive |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full Text of PDF | MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE, 2009 Media contact: Kathy MacPherson, galleryinfo@otis.edu, 310.665.6909 The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the exhibition: Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition… October 3 – December 12, 2009 Opening reception: Saturday October 3, 2009, 4-6pm The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the exhibition Travis Somerville: Dedicated to the Proposition . . . opening to the public on Saturday, October 3, with an exhibition tour with the artist at 3:15pm followed by a public reception 4pm-6pm; on view through December 12. Dedicated to the Proposition. . . is a solo exhibition of San Francisco based artist Travis Somerville organized by the OTIS Ben Maltz Gallery and travelling in 2010 through 2011. The exhibition presents a new body of work including painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. The exhibition title refers to Abraham Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg Address delivered during the Civil War: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” In this speech, Lincoln asks the nation to honor its fallen by challenging its citizens to fully realize and achieve “. . . a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The election of Barack Obama in January 2009 just days prior to the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth in Hardin Town, Kentucky, seems to fulfill the commitment that Lincoln makes to the soldiers interred at Gettysburg. However there is still much work to be done in uniting and healing the nation. With this body of work, Somerville explores the complex inheritance of a nation trying to live up to Lincoln’s challenge of being a nation not divided, but truly “dedicated to the proposition…” The artist is interested in investigating the tension and contradiction in America’s realization of equality and freedom for all between the numerous examples of the nation’s success manifest in Obama’s election and first 100 days and the nation’s failure evidenced by the enduring and shameful aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Travis Somerville was born in 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia to white civil rights activists—an Episcopal preacher and school teacher—and grew up in various cities and rural towns throughout the Southern United States. The geography of his upbringing is important to mention because the cultural implications of |
