Santa Rosa online art exhibit urges us to ‘VOTE!’

Public discussion on the near-at-hand November election tends to be partisan and thoroughly polarized, but the Santa Rosa Arts Center’s current online exhibit “VOTE 2020!” has a broader theme.

“I think people have made up their minds,” said center director Simmon Factor, the show’s curator and one of its roughly dozen participating artists. “We don’t need to attack anyone.”

Rather than try and convince viewers to join a side, this exhibit simply urges people to vote, as its title says. The show continues through Nov. 3 at bit.ly/2SwSFtr

“This exhibit is about the importance of voting,” Factor wrote in his online announcement of the show. “So many issues are at stake. To name a few: the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter and racial injustice, the economy, climate change, housing, the Supreme Court and, critically, the state of our democracy.”

The roughly 20 pieces in the exhibit from local artists focus on issues and ideas, not candidates.

Factor’s own contributions include “We the People” and “A Portrait of George Floyd,” an acrylic and paper collage depicting the Black man killed during an arrest in May in Minneapolis whose death sparked nationwide protests against police use of force and racial inequalities.

Demonstrations protesting racial injustice and police tactics are the subject of Dawn Thomas’ painting “Portland Protests,” based on a photo taken of a struggle between a demonstrator and a police officer.

“This piece was painted with permission from the photographer and features a moment in the Portland, Oregon, protests where a woman is grabbed away from (a) wall of moms by a federal agent. I found the expressions on both of their faces a compelling image,” Thomas, of Santa Rosa, wrote on the center’s website.

The online exhibit also features videos, including “With Malice Towards None” by Susan Bercu and a video featuring an original song titled “Love Around the World 2020” by Santa Rosa composer Jason Farnham.

“This is the first time my work has ever been included in an art exhibit,” Farnham said. The song has more than 19,000 views on Facebook and was mixed by Grammy-award winner and Sonoma County resident Isha Erskine, he said.

“I like how the theme of the exhibit focuses on just getting people to vote, which seems more like a theme of unity,” Farnham added.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.