River House Arts and Contemporary Art Toledo present Ben Schonberger: Beautiful Pig

Eye On Art  |  07/28/2016 8:00 am

Through an archive of startling images and memorabilia, an artist and subject invite viewers to explore ideas related to identity, power, and empathy.

River House Arts in conjunction with Contemporary Art Toledo, is pleased to present Beautiful Pig, an exhibition of work by artist, photographer, and archivist, Ben Schonberger. Centered on a trove of photographs and ephemera collected by a former Detroit police officer during the latter part of the 20th Century and purposefully assembled and augmented by the artist, Beautiful Pig offers a provocative, timely, and unblinking look at cultural identity, self-perception, and the realities of racial disparity in law enforcement.

The show opens with a public reception on Friday, August 12 from 8 - 10 pm and will be on view through September 8, 2016.

The opening reception follows Schonberger’s 6:30 book-signing and 7pm lecture at Toledo Museum of Art’s GlasSalon, part of the artist’s residency at the Glass Pavilion which runs from August 8 - 17th.

The project began when Schonberger was working in Detroit and acquired a box of photographs from Marty Gaynor, a retired police officer. Gaynor had documented the entirety of his career through thousands of images, including countless Polaroids of individuals he had arrested. Intrigued by the scope of the collection and the man responsible for amassing it, Schonberger embarked on a years-long collaborative process with Gaynor. The result is in an intensely personal yet culturally and historically revealing archive.

Beautiful Pig first appeared in book form and was shortlisted by Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Award in 2013 and the Anamorphosis Prize in 2015. Today it can be found in the New York Public Library, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MoMA, the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, The Arts Library at Yale University, and nearly a dozen other cultural institutions.

Portions of the collection have appeared in group exhibitions, however the upcoming show at River House Arts will be first time it has been presented in its entirety.

River House Arts located in the historic Secor Building at 425 Jefferson in Downtown Toledo, is a full service gallery offering exhibitions of modern and contemporary artists. Gallery hours are 12 – 8 pm Tuesday through Friday and by appointment. ( (Special events are often scheduled in the gallery calling ahead is strongly recommended. 419-441-4025.)

For more information visit http://www.river-house-arts.com/