All in a Day's Work

About

The exhibition came about when Patrick Alexis came to FiveMyles and asked for a studio visit. He said that his paintings are about the police, what police officers see, think about, and what they fear. All of which the public does not know. In his career as a Black police officer working primarily in minority communities, he sees the complexity of the confrontational landscape that contributes to police shootings. With his paintings he asks the question of how do communities and the police reform themselves? How to arrive at unbiased opinions on both sides?

Michelle Samedi, a long-time Crown Heights resident, neighbor and friend, felt strongly that these paintings should be shown, that the public needs to see the human side of policing, that it is FiveMyles' job to show artwork and not to censor. Michelle agreed to co-curate the exhibition with Hanne Tierney, the Director of FiveMyles.                                                

Marvin Franklin, who had worked underground for 22 years as a track worker for the MTA, was killed by a train in 2007. The artist Barbara Campisi introduced FiveMyles to Marvin Franklin's widow, Tenley Franklin, and she showed these incredible drawings Franklin made on his nightly trips to and from work. The drawings capture the loneliness of the subway at nighttime - vacant stares, heads tilted in sleep, a mother's lap used as a pillow for her children's heads. Barbara Campisi curated Marvin Franklin's work for the exhibition.