'Justice for All?'

Capital punishment – a subject you expect to be hotly debated in the statehouse and the courthouse, among the Sunday TV talking heads, and perhaps in the theatre (as with The Exonerated, closing its run at Zach this weekend), but in the art gallery? Expect it this month, with "Justice for All?: Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty," an international juried art exhibition sponsored by the Texas Moratorium Network to encourage and enhance civic dialogue on the topic. Jurors Annette Carlozzi, curator of American and contemporary art at the Blanton Museum of Art; Lora Reynolds, owner of Lora Reynolds Gallery; and Malaquias Montoya, artist and professor of art at University of California-Davis, considered more than 700 works by some 300 artists from 38 states and 19 countries. They settled on 55 works, 14 of which came from artists currently on death row in Texas. Visitors to the exhibition can hear individual works described – in most cases by the artists themselves – by calling special numbers on their cell phones, and then may share their thoughts on the artwork and have their statements posted on the Web site, www.deathpenaltyartshow.org. That site will also be displaying all the works that were submitted for the show, and in the future, artists will be able to upload their death-penalty artwork to the site, so that it can become a resource for galleries and organizations interested in organizing similar exhibitions on their own.

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"Justice for All?: Artists Reflect on the Death Penalty" is on display May 6-22 at Gallery Lombardi, 910 W. Third. Annette Carlozzi will conduct a gallery talk Thursday, May 11, 7pm, at the Gallery. For more information, visit www.deathpenaltyartshow.org.