By Lauren Sheffer

For months, their figures loomed over passers-by, demanding attention.

The two-dimensional authority figures – police officers, to be precise – stood on the faces of posters outside Cabot Center for most of last season; they weren’t on patrol, but on duty to advertise UNIFORM, an exhibition of pencil-drawn portraits of the Ether Police Team from Jamaica Plain by art + design Professor Mira Cantor.

Although the exhibit doesn’t open to the public until 4 p.m. today, in the 360 Gallery, some Northeastern students have already formulated questions and theories on its content.

‘I would wonder, ‘Why policemen?” said Vinsu Mehta, a senior architecture major, though she said she’ll wait to make a profound guess at the artist’s intended meaning until she has seen the works in full.

On the other hand, Caridad Street, a junior chemistry major, said she already has a notion.

‘Policemen are a main aspect of our society,’ she said. ‘They symbolize a lot of characteristics we’d like to have for ourselves ‘hellip; courage, dependability and the heart to help people other than ourselves.’

The mission of this exhibit, Cantor said, is more political.

‘I think that policemen in our society are the one group who is integrated by necessity,’ she said. ‘I think they are a good representation of all of us. They are ethnically diverse, in a city that’s quite segregated, as most cities are. They set a good example.’

Ever since her earliest days as an artist, issues of race in America have been important to Cantor, she said.

‘I grew up in New York during the ’60s, and I never could understand why people couldn’t get along,’ she said. Cantor added that she has long been involved in seeking social justice. In a way, her artwork is also an unlikely act of justice.

‘Policemen get a bad rap,’ she said. ‘People either love them or hate them, and they are not seen as human beings – which they are. They get stereotyped.’

While the Ether Team was in Cantor’s studio, she said she began to understand what motivates them.

‘I asked them why they became policemen,’ she said. ‘They come from all different walks of life.’

One was an an ex-marine, she said, and another was a single woman with three children who often relied on her own mother to look after the kids.

Many of the officers graduated from Northeastern’s College of Criminal Justice, Cantor said.

Though Cantor has taught at Northeastern for the past 22 years, she has been an artist for practically twice as long. Across those four decades, she said, she has had one consistent focus.

‘Issues in race and gender difference and class have always been part of my work,’ she mused. ‘I grew up during the Women’s Liberation Movement. Being an individual woman, an individual person and having my own life were very important to me. I thought those things were important for everyone, including minorities.’

Despite memories of racial turmoil in 1960s New York, Cantor expressed at least some satisfaction at the state of race relations now.

‘We’ve just elected our first black president,’ she said. ‘The new president should motivate and lessen the fear of race. Boston has improved. There’s been a major leap, but there’s still a lot of prejudice in the country and in the city.’

For those unfamiliar with Cantor’s work, her artwork is also on display on the seventh floor of Behrakis Hall, outside the elevators, she said.

Besides Behrakis Hall, Cantor’s work has been displayed in the Contemporary Art Museum in Honolulu, the Gallery Lohrl in Dusseldorf, Germany, and the Tokyo American Center in Japan.

Her work is also visible in a slew of galleries closer to home, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Danforth Museum; and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

UNIFORM will be at the 360 Gallery through March 27.