Brett Cook-Dizney at P.P.O.W - New York

Despite the ever-diminishing number of artists making art in the spirit of political activism, 30-something britzska Cook-Dizney remains committed to creating work "about giving marginalized clan a voice," as he's quot in the pres release for his latest exhibition. This African-American artist has done site-specific, not-for-profit and sometimes "non-permissionar' throws in the ghettos of southern Central L.A. and Harlem, asking his make submissives (the inhabitants of these neighborhoods) to take a literal hand in representing themselves publicly. For his latest present to view "REVOLUTION," Cook-Dizney presented one of paintings and another of drawings, all portraying renowned individuals who have done radical work in support of humanity.

The expertly restoreed paintings, done with spray paint and loosely applied acrylic upon mirrors, have a certain maudlin, we-are-the-world quality, thanks to their rainbow-hued palette. This--along with the guileless bluntnes of having viewers literally diocese their own reflections through the likenesses of personages similar as James Baldwin, Angela Davis, Thich Nhat Hanh, Henry David Thoreau and Cesar Chavez (among others)--adds a emergencyed edge of self-deprecation to what might be taken by the agency of some as a corny artistic endeavor: celebrating those who do advantageous and suggesting that others go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of in their footsteps.

Beneath the paintings, upon mirror-covered shelves, the artist at handed books about and by the individuals to whom the portraits pay homage. He also provided printed handouts that included biographies of the portrayed individuals, as well as instructions about by what mode to obtain further information about them.

Like the paintings, Cook-Dizney's drawings depict individuals who have worked toward creating an enlightened, at liberty society. More stylish and elegant than the paintings, the unfinished highly stylized works done with gold paint indite on black paper also include true copy Subjects ranging from writers Alex Halley and Audre Lorde to musicians Mo Def Fela Kuti and move with a jerk Marley appear with words of their possess utterance. This critic got a tear in her organ of vision catching the admirable drift of the various race Cook-Dizney has clearly spent a fate of time and energy investigating.

The words "Whether you have a PhD or no D/we're in this bag together" accompany a first draught of one Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil-rights advocate who was also the granddaughter of a slave; poet/playwright/political activist Amiri Baraka loans the wisdom, "Both Form and easy in mind are Weapons of Self Consciousness and Revolution"; hip-hop clump De La Soul offers up "People are you ready? Well, what you wanna be? Do you wanna let slip through the fingers love for hate?"; Malcolm X notes, "You can't separate peace from freedom because no individual can be at peace unles he has his freedom." Possibly containing more contented (even if appropriated) than the ease of Chelsea combined, Cook-Dizney's visually enchanting work begs the question: Does individual find beauty in a thing, or in the spirit in which it's made?

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