Tahoe Activist Artists

Assata Shakur

April 27, 2022

Assata Shakur (2020) Oil on Canvas 20 x 20″ On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Olugbala Shakur (aka) Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances …

Kathleen Cleaver

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Kathleen Cleaver (2020) Oil on Canvas20 x 20″ Cleaver recently retired from the Emory University School of Law, which she joined in 1992. She began her lifelong activist work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1966, but left the following year to join the Black Panther Party, which was also founded in 1966. …

Angela Davis

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Angela Davis (2020) Oil on Canvas 20 x 20″ “Through her activism and scholarship over the last decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation’s quest for social justice. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building …

Lost Property

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Lost Property (2018) Oil on Canvas 40 x 30″ “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” I organized and curated an art exhibition with my group, the Tahoe Activist Artists last year, entitled ‘We the People: Visualize a World of Conversation and Connection’. One of the …

Compassionem/Pieta

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Pieta / Compassionem (2017) Oil on Canvas 40 x 60″ My decision to paint the ‘Pietà’ came after reading a piece by George Saunders on the role of artists at times like these: “…the people making a lot of these Trump initiatives don’t seem able to imagine the actual victims of their programs….So those of …

Harriet Tubman

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Harriet Tubman Oil on Canvas 40 x 40″ Collection of the Huey P. Newton Foundation “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Harriet Tubman This larger-than-life portrait of Harriet Tubman is painted in …

The Beginning of the Tahoe Activist Artists

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

The helplessness and shock I experienced after the 2016 election triggered a cycle of creativity I haven’t experienced since I was a student. I picked up an old canvas, and started to paint with no clear intention, just an energy. Two hours later, a larger than life Albert Einstein was looking down at me, his …

Pieta/Compassionem Oil on Canvas 40×60″

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Pieta / Compassionem (2017)Oil on Canvas 40 x 60″ My decision to paint the ‘Pietà’ came after reading a piece by George Saunders on the role of artists at times like these: “…the people making a lot of these Trump initiatives don’t seem able to imagine the actual victims of their programs….So those of us …

Lost Property

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Lost Property (2018)Oil on Canvas 40 x 30″ “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu. I organized and curated an art exhibition with my group, the Tahoe Activist Artists last year, entitled ‘We the People: Visualize a World of Conversation and Connection’. One of the …

Marie Curie

April 27, 2022

By Shelley Zentner

Marie CurieOil on Canvas 40 x 40″ Collection of Linda and Jeff Reichel “Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.”Marie Curie Marie Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman …