GUNS IN THE HANDS OF ARTISTS

MIAMI, Fl.— Miami Project and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery announce a special, invitation only presentation of the widely acclaimed traveling exhibition Guns In The Hands Of Artists at Miami Project’s fourth edition at The Deauville Resort Hotel (6701 Collins Ave.) during Miami Art Week from December 1-6, 2015. This iteration of the exhibition features thirty nationally known artists who have used over 180 decommissioned guns from the streets of New Orleans to create original works of art dealing with the issue of guns in our society. Artists include Mel Chin, Skylar Fein, Peter Sarkisian, Rico Gatson, Bradley McCallum, and Deborah Luster, who lost her mother to gun violence. The project has been featured in The Associated Press, Vice, Al Jazeera America, Sculpture Magazine, Art Pulse, The Atlantic, and most recently MSNBC.

In 1996 gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara and artist Brian Borrello organized the first Guns in the Hands of Artists exhibition in New Orleans—transforming guns removed from the city’s streets into original works of art.  The persistence of violent gun crime in New Orleans and across America led Ferrara to reprise the project at his eponymous gallery in New Orleans in October of 2014 to coincide with the Prospect.3 biennial. In partnership with The Aspen Institute and The City of New Orleans, the exhibition has since been presented at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival and the Aspen Action Forum and at the Des Lee Gallery at Washington University in St. Louis. After this special presentation at Miami Project, the exhibition will travel to Chicago to be presented by Project &, and in 2017 it will be exhibited at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Additional dates and cities throughout the United States are in development.

“As an artist, activist and social entrepreneur, I asked myself, ‘What can I do to address this issue that pervades our society?’” said Jonathan Ferrara. “Putting together this exhibition is my way of doing something. It’s my goal to use art and the creative process to facilitate new, frank dialogue about gun violence. The exhibition fosters a new discourse by bringing the discussion into the realm of art; without the often partisan and polarized politics that surround the issue.”

Access to this special presentation of “Guns In The Hands Of Artists” at Miami Project is by invitation only. To request additional information please contact Andrew Freeman at andrew@bondpublicrelations.com or (504) 920-8012.

The fourth edition of Miami Project opens at The Deauville Resort with a VIP Preview from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1st. The fair is open to the public Wednesday December 2nd through Sunday, December 6th. For hours, images, or press passes contact Kelly Freeman at kelly@artmarketproductions.com or (212) 518-6912.

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To complement the exhibition, Ferrara is publishing a 220-page book featuring photographs of the artwork with a collection of essays on guns and gun violence by nationally known thought leaders including: Walter Isaacson, curator Dan Cameron, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, Maria Cuomo Cole, New Orleans’ Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu, Dan Gross of The Brady Campaign, Michael Waldman of The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, Lucia McBath mother of slain teen Jordan Davis, Rapper Lupe Fiasco, Poet E. Ethelbert Miller, Lolis Eric Elie, Trymaine Lee, Ace Atkins, Gregg Hurwitz, and Robert Crais.  The book will be published by crowd-funding website Inkshares and will be available Spring 2016