In honor of Black History Month, Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of Craig Norton: Civil Rights and The Lynching from the recent series, 127 Racist Drawings.

Norton, a self-taught artist from St. Louis, utilizes a 29-cent Bic pen and a stippling technique to create remarkably direct photorealist faces, which he clothes in wallpaper collage. Civil Rights, a dramatic, multi-figure installation, starkly portrays the most horrifying and heart-rending acts of the American Civil Rights Movement: the lynchings, segregationist rallies, Ku Klux Klan activities and other extreme injustices of the period. Originally shown at White Flag Projects in St. Louis, the version to be shown at Jim Kempner will include new drawings of Martin Luther King.

Believing that he can raise awareness through his emotionally wrought imagery, Craig Norton seeks to create images that confront the viewer withcompelling social problems. In the past few years, his work has addressed a range of issues from genocide and gun violence to Alzheimer’s disease.

Craig Norton was invited to participate in the 2009-2010 Vancouver Biennale, and was recently awarded a Fountainhead Residency in Miami. His work is in the collections of the deYoung Museum in San Francisco, and numerous private collections.

This will be the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery, and his first solo gallery show in New York.