New Art Space Opens in Dogpatch with Striking Exhibition from Rodney Ewing

From SF Weekly,

Two impressive collections dealing heavily with race, ritual, trauma, and injustice from Rodney Ewing make up the inaugural exhibit in Dogpatch Cafe & Art Gallery, according to a statement from Ewing and John Warner of the cafe and gallery. Saturday night is Ewing's opening reception.


The first series is called "Port Chicago," named for the infamous Bay Area facility, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine. Located on Suisun Bay between Martinez and Bay Point, it was where munitions were loaded in World War II. In July 1944 a shipment exploded, injuring and killing hundreds of mostly black enlisted men. The Navy blamed the men for the explosion and later imprisoned some 50 who refused to work because of unsafe conditions. The late Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court, defended the men, most of whom were released but not exonerated for decades.



​The second series is called "Rituals of Water," which is "an exploration of the allegory of water in the context of the African Diaspora," according to Ewing. The work is divided into four thematic sections: Transition (Middle Passage), Transformation (Baptism), Resistance (Civil Rights), and Dispersal (Hurricane Katrina). Ewing says it shows how one element can serve purposes mundane, transcendent, and malevolent.


​Ewing combines stark detail with watercolor-like washes and repeated forms to create thoughtful works that are at once overt and subtle. His use of color is limited but also stark, underscoring the dual impact of the work. Although most of his subjects are African-American people, Ewing transcends tired political grandstanding or shock value to reach a place that is simultaneously disturbing and meditative, and, in the end, unmistakably human. In his work we are not looking at "the other," but rather at ourselves. Ewing's effects thus invite the viewer to gaze upon a single piece for extended periods of time.


Dogpatch Cafe & Art Gallery is at 2295 Third St. (at 20th St.). The work will be on display through the first week of June. The Dogpatch Cafe opened in September 2010; this exhibit marks the beginning of the art space.