This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 23, 2011 - Isolation Room's new exhibit is "Jimma!" by Los Angeles-based artist Jay Lizo: a fabulous portrait of Jimmy Carter back in the '70s glam era, delivering a speech amid trippy colored light beams and a silver sky.
The work is from "A Song from My Hero Collection," a series of portraits of people Lizo admires, and it's nice to see Carter thus celebrated -- not for his latter-day diplomatic and humanitarian efforts, but for the workmanlike dedication with which he handled his single, unfairly maligned presidential term.
To further honor Carter's environmental concerns, Isolation Room has gone green for "Jimma!" and powered the gallery lights with a solar generator. A spectacular statement in a small package: This is Isolation Room's specialty.
Ivy Cooper, a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is the Beacon art critic.