Features/Reviews

Convergences: Towards a Jewish/Muslim Renewal,' with artwork by Karim Chaibi and Tom Block, who are Muslim and Jewish, respectively, 'explores the positive aspects of the Jewish/Muslim liaison,' insists Heliport’s curator David Fogel....

Two artists, one Jewish and one Muslim, examine their faiths’ common ground in upcoming exhibit. Through their art, Tom Block and Karim Chaibi hope people can see more of the similarities between the Jewish and Muslim religions and less of the misunderstandings....

...Much of the current enmity between Jews and Muslims is based on history, but there is "a whole positive history that is ignored," says Block, also 43, pointing to the period between the seventh and 15th centuries when Arabs and Jews lived together in the Middle East in amity....

A group of small acrylic paintings on paper, combining areas of color, line drawings and bits of text, is on view at Space 7:10. Located inside the Kefa Café on Bonifant Street in downtown Silver Spring, this new art venue is just the sort of place where artist Tom Block prefers to exhibit his provocative work....

...Tom Block of Silver Spring makes large, boldly colored portraits that depict individuals involved in the struggle for human rights around the world. Jessica Damen of Baltimore paints colorful, textured works focused on children and the experiences of growing up....

Tom Block began his professional life as a writer, but over the past 15 years he has developed a parallel career as a visual artist. Since the late 1990s he has focused his artistic energies largely on the creation of serial artworks that explore social, political and philosophical issues, he said in a recent telephone interview from his home on the outskirts of Washington....

....Thickly painted expressionist portraits of the survivors line the white gallery walls. Grim reality is balanced by rich color giving the work emotional vibrancy. Each work is accompanied by a brief written description of the travails of these victims. Many have overcome their personal anguishes to become champions for justice....

Tom Block is an artist with an activist bent.

Art has traditionally "been prophetic and inspirational," says the Silver Spring painter, whose works are on exhibit at two local venues, with two more shows set to open next month.

Three exhibits at Artspace Gallery blend visual pleasure with food for thought in a compelling brew of eye-dazzling emotionalism. Michael A. Pierce's "Simple Equations" and Tom Block's "Human Rights Painting Project" confront power and hatred in vibrant works of art. Nancy Lea Strube provides comic relief with "Kisses" an exquisite series of colorful prints that celebrate the pleasures of lip-locking.

Art that grapples explicitly with political subject matter is rare in this postmodern age. Earnest engagement with the world is antithetical to the cool relativism that has pervaded Western art since Andy Warhol got chummy with the Shah of Iran. Yet if any age cried out for spirited political art, surely it's our own.