Join Tony Rave for an Artist Talk on his solo exhibition, Blue Lives Matter, closing on Saturday, March 7th.
This exhibition brings together two interconnected bodies of work—the Reagan Series and the Smurks Series—that examine how systems of power shape lives long before consent is ever possible.
Tony Rave approaches both series with deep personal urgency rooted in lived observation. Growing up in Detroit, he witnessed how policy becomes personal and how slogans, symbols, and public messaging quietly embed themselves into private lives. His work does not chase shock value or reenact trauma; it insists on honesty.
Each piece invites the viewer to slow down, sit with the imagery, and confront it through the lens of their own experience. Many of the works in this exhibition are still in progress, making the show a snapshot of an evolving practice rather than a fixed or resolved statement.
By drawing on familiar characters and visual language, his work questions how innocence and authority become intertwined, and how imagery influences belief, belonging, and control. The connection between the two series is emotional and human rather than literal—together tracing a line between policy and culture, language and imagery, public narrative and inner life.
ON VIEW THROUGH MARCH 7
