Artist Reception, SMUDGE exhibition, Gallery 478.

“Tom Bolema is an artist, musician, and educator with a long history of championing the underdog socially, politically, and culturally.”

“SMUDGE is comprised of portraits gleaned from photocopied inmate worker IDs printed ten to a page and displayed at the Education Officer’s work station. They have been digitized and modified for the purpose of exhibition. Described by the artist: “Among the greater group, the individual face becomes a smudge.” He wants to provoke viewers to share his concern over prison conditions, to wonder about the subject’s life, and to recognize them as real people.”

Curator Ron Linden

REVIEW