Gun violence has become a defining trauma of our time, shaping individual lives, politics, communities, and national identities. From mass shootings in schools, in public, and places of worship, to state violence enacted by police and military, to the persistent toll of everyday gun deaths, the presence of the gun extends far beyond the weapon itself. It permeates memory, architecture, and even language. Disarm is an exhibition of international and U.S.-based artists who confront the cultural, political, and personal dimensions of gun violence. Their works move between grief and resistance, absence and remembrance, silence and collective witness.
The title Disarm operates on multiple levels. It evokes the urgent demand to remove weapons from circulation, but also the vulnerable act of disarming oneself?of relinquishing not only tools of violence but the myths of protection, masculinity, and power that have been attached to them. In doing so, the exhibition aims to reframe gun violence not as a series of isolated events but as a continuum of systemic conditions: racism, colonialism, militarization, poverty, and political neglect.
One artist, originally from Mexico, casts bullet shells in unfired clay. Their fragility destabilizes the permanence of metal and industry, transforming ammunition into brittle vessels that cannot harm but can shatter at a touch. In this gesture, the artist imagines a world where the most lethal objects become the most delicate.
Another artist, based in South Africa, works with ballistic gel?the material used in forensic laboratories to simulate human flesh when testing firearms. Through sculptural installations, she transforms the gel into translucent, body-like forms suspended in light. Her work implicates the global arms trade, connecting violence in local communities to the circulation of weapons across borders.
Another artist draws from archival research, working with police reports, court transcripts, and crime scene photographs from her hometown. She reimagines these documents as large-scale abstract drawings, obscuring and layering the bureaucratic language until it becomes unreadable. In doing so, she questions how institutions narrate violence, whose voices are heard, and whose grief remains invisible.
The exhibition also acknowledges the historical and global dimensions of firearms. The gun has long been a tool of colonial domination, imperial expansion, and state enforcement. From European conquest to present-day militarization of borders, the circulation of guns is tied to broader systems of control and exploitation. Disarm draws attention to these continuities, suggesting that today?s gun violence is not an aberration but an extension of historical patterns.
The public program accompanying Disarm will extend these conversations into community engagement. Trauma-informed practitioners will facilitate workshops where visitors can process the exhibition in collective dialogue. A live reading of testimonies from survivors, paired with original sound compositions, will bring fragmented narratives into a shared listening space. Panel discussions with policy advocates, artists, and researchers will contextualize the art within larger debates about disarmament, public health, and justice.
The exhibition insists that to disarm is not simply to take away weapons, but to dismantle the systems and myths that allow violence to persist.
The title Disarm operates on multiple levels. It evokes the urgent demand to remove weapons from circulation, but also the vulnerable act of disarming oneself?of relinquishing not only tools of violence but the myths of protection, masculinity, and power that have been attached to them. In doing so, the exhibition aims to reframe gun violence not as a series of isolated events but as a continuum of systemic conditions: racism, colonialism, militarization, poverty, and political neglect.
One artist, originally from Mexico, casts bullet shells in unfired clay. Their fragility destabilizes the permanence of metal and industry, transforming ammunition into brittle vessels that cannot harm but can shatter at a touch. In this gesture, the artist imagines a world where the most lethal objects become the most delicate.
Another artist, based in South Africa, works with ballistic gel?the material used in forensic laboratories to simulate human flesh when testing firearms. Through sculptural installations, she transforms the gel into translucent, body-like forms suspended in light. Her work implicates the global arms trade, connecting violence in local communities to the circulation of weapons across borders.
Another artist draws from archival research, working with police reports, court transcripts, and crime scene photographs from her hometown. She reimagines these documents as large-scale abstract drawings, obscuring and layering the bureaucratic language until it becomes unreadable. In doing so, she questions how institutions narrate violence, whose voices are heard, and whose grief remains invisible.
The exhibition also acknowledges the historical and global dimensions of firearms. The gun has long been a tool of colonial domination, imperial expansion, and state enforcement. From European conquest to present-day militarization of borders, the circulation of guns is tied to broader systems of control and exploitation. Disarm draws attention to these continuities, suggesting that today?s gun violence is not an aberration but an extension of historical patterns.
The public program accompanying Disarm will extend these conversations into community engagement. Trauma-informed practitioners will facilitate workshops where visitors can process the exhibition in collective dialogue. A live reading of testimonies from survivors, paired with original sound compositions, will bring fragmented narratives into a shared listening space. Panel discussions with policy advocates, artists, and researchers will contextualize the art within larger debates about disarmament, public health, and justice.
The exhibition insists that to disarm is not simply to take away weapons, but to dismantle the systems and myths that allow violence to persist.
Donald Gialanella apprenticed with Louise Bourgeois after earning a BFA in sculpture from The Cooper Union. His public sculptures are installed across the United States.
Spencer Vomacka: Spencer Vomacka apprentices with Donald Gialanella creating large scale public sculptures and creates multi media visual works of his own.
Spencer Vomacka: Spencer Vomacka apprentices with Donald Gialanella creating large scale public sculptures and creates multi media visual works of his own.
apexart’s program supporters past and present include the National Endowment for the Arts, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, The Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.