Pix of the Day
A Pussy Riot breaks out at Avis Frank Gallery opening
Amid the large crowd at the opening of the Patrick Renner exhibition at the new Avis Frank Gallery in the Heights Saturday night, one visitor stood out.
Tim Gonzalez, curator at The Station Museum of Contemporary Art, showed up in a tribute to Pussy Riot, the punk rock band whose three members were recently convicted of hooliganism in a widely ridiculed trial in Moscow that highlighted Russian President Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rule. (The five-member band stormed a Moscow cathedral and sang a 40-second song asking the Virgin Mary to protect Russia from Putin. Three band members were sentenced to two years in prison, the other two recently fled Russia to avoid prosecution.)
Gonazalez wore a Free Pussy Riot T-shirt and a balaclava (a ski mask covering much of his face), a trademark of the band.
He admitted that the get-up was part protest and partly for a party he was attending later in the evening, but he remains in good company. Madonna wore a balaclava and Pussy Riot's name on her back at a recent Moscow concert to highlight her support for the group and defend the right to free speech. Paul McCartney, Sting, Bryan Adams, Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz and The Cure's Robert Smith have also denounced the trial and defended the band.
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