(TRNS) – American contemporary artist Michael D’Antuono spoke with TRNS about his newest painting “The Talk,” as well as his other profoundly politically and socially driven works.
“The Talk” depicts a black mother and father looking at their young son pensively while a TV screen in the background shows the photo of a now deceased smiling black boy beside a white police officer with the words “No Indictment In Police Shooting Of Unarmed Black Youth” set along the bottom of the television screen.
“It’s been 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic Selma to Montgomery marches. Contrast that progress to 2014, which saw police officers in several cities killing unarmed African Americans without risk of indictment. I doubt that Dr. King would have ever dreamed that in 2015, African American parents would still find it necessary to warn their young sons about the dangers of being black in America,” the painting’s caption reads.