American painter and photographer Todd Drake creates art that is shaped by community.
Drake has worked with a wide variety of communities including patients at an Alzheimer’s nursing home, employees at an exotic night club, long distance truck drivers, and refugees from Vietnam to create the large painting series “et al.”
Drake visited Bahrain to conduct photography workshops for Bahraini youth and photography aficionados. In cooperation with the Bahrain Arts Society, Drake conducted five-day intensive workshops for students from the University College of Bahrain, youth societies, and members of the Bahrain Arts Society.
The objectives of the workshop included promoting a richer understanding of Muslims and Islamic culture in America, building bridges between the United States and Bahrain, and deepening friendships in and across cultures.
Dedicated to making the world a more peaceful place through art’s power to provoke understanding, Drake has worked with the Muslim community in the USA, Bahrain, and soon in Saudi Arabia.
Drake’s workshops and sessions culminated in an exhibition entitled “Unity in Identity,” which opened at the Bahrain Arts Society at the Lanterns premises on May 30. It will juxtapose Drake’s photographs from “Essam Quam Videri” with select works by participants in Drake’s workshops in Bahrain.
Some moments captured during the exhibition inauguration by Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa accompanied by Ms. Stephanie Williams of the US Embassy in Manama, Bahrain.
The exhibition was open to public till June 10, 2011 at the Bahrain Arts Society premises, adjacent to Lanterns, near Burgerland RA.
MyRefractions 