Speed of Life

The contemporary artist Titus Kaphar searched for his father’s prison records in 2011. On the web, Titus found arrest photographs of dozens who shared his father’s name.  Horrified and spurred to artistic action, Titus created a series of paintings which comment on the United States' biased prison-industrial complex. The recent events spanning the US from Ferguson, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California, to New York City point out the inherent prejudices in the policing and imprisonment culture  current  in the United States.  Titus created portraits of men who shared his father's name. Echoing the loss of voice inherent in those imprisoned, Titus dips his paintings into hot tar - rendering his subjects mute.   Titus Kaphar Jerome I , 2014 Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel 7 × 10 ½ in. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York ©Titus Kaphar Titus Kaphar Jerome III , 2014 Oil, gold leaf ...

Titus Kaphar Jerome II , 2014 Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel 7 × 10 ½ in. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York ©Titus Kaphar As protests against police brutality continue across the United States in the wake of the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, contemporary  artists have joined the debate in artworks of extraordinary power and grace. From the Occupy Movement, to LGBT rights , to Black Lives Matter , to the issues surrounding “Je suis Charlie” , contemporary art, often of a representational bent, helps shed light on the complex nature of our times. Feroze Alam and Ravinder Padam Ferguson As a contemporary artist, I find it necessary to engage in the issue of social justice in my own artwork, and have found myself part of a disparate but powerful artistic community of painters and sculptors from Feroze Alam and Ravinder Padam in London, to Titus Kaphar, Kehinde Wiley and Joy Gar...