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Seeking Engagement:
The Art of Richard Kamler

Edited by Steven Zahavi Schwartz

“Art is our one true global language. It knows no nation. It favors no race. It acknowledges no class. It speaks to our need to heal, reveal, and transform. It transcends our ordinary lives and lets us imagine what is possible. It creates a dialogue between individuals, and communication between communities. It allows us to see and to listen to each other.”

—Richard Kamler,
as quoted by Vice President Joe Biden in
his opening remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Richard Kamler has for decades sought and found engagement in the deepest and most human sense. His work for peace, especially in prisons, provides a powerful model for the growing ranks of “citizen artists.” More power to him, and to them.

—Lucy R. Lippard,
author of Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object

Imagine a parallel universe in which an artist is a genuine public intellectual, an art installation is as urgent and meaningful as congressional legislation, and a college art course as relevant as the daily news. This is the universe of Richard Kamler. The more of us join him there the better.

—Lawrence Rinder,
Director of the Berkeley Art Museum

I have known Richards Kamler’s work for many years and have been astonished by the power and force of meaning of it, especially his prison series. Richard Kamler is a truly innovative artist who is dedicated to the use of art as an agent for social change.

—Peter Selz,
founder of the Berkeley Art Museum,
former curator at the
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Kamler’s art pulls viewers onto a common ground where former adversaries find themselves inspired to change policies and laws, transform institutions and lives, and give dignity to grief, forgiveness, and second chances. His work in our jails changed the way we saw each other, and encouraged new programs that thrive to this day.

—Michael Marcum, ex-con,
and Assistant Sheriff of San Francisco