Description: Rodney Ewing’s art blends equal parts beauty and social commentary. In his recent solo exhibition at Frey Norris Gallery in San Francisco, Ewing’s “Public Safety” comprised three thematic series: Disarm, Countermeasures and Meditations. A compelling “Artweek” review notes, when referring to the current social (i.e., violence in inner city neighborhoods) and political (e.g., Iraq War), “Ewing’s complex art rebutes this glamorized violence without emotional grandstanding of its own; combining military imagery with material borrowed from literature and science; it challenges us to ‘intersect body and place, memory and fact to re-examine human histories, cultural conditions and events.” Ewing grew up in a highly mobile military family. His father was a non-commissioned officer in the Air Force and they lived, over many years, in Louisiana, Virginia, Maryland, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, the Phillipines and at Lakenheath Air Force Base in England. The artist received his MFA in printmaking from West Virginia University and has appeared in exhibitions around the country. Ewing regularly volunteers, teaching art to children in Palestine (during the most recent conflict with Lebanon), Trinidad and in Oakland’s community programs. Ewing’s work appeals to a wide demographic. Comedian/actor, Damon Wayans, is one of his more well-known supporters.