Text by Seth Cohen
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On Friday night, as U.S. television screens burned with images of peaceful protests turning violent, Nike released a new socially conscious ad calling on Americans to do something quite different than the brand’s usual call to “Just Do It.” Instead, one of the nation’s leading athletic apparel companies called on individuals to not turn their back on the painful issue of racism in the United States.
Caleidoscópica Violeta, is a creative space for reflection, dialogue, critique, and praxis of pop contemporary feminism. It is also an initiative that seeks to reflect on the role of women in the history of modern art. Historically, the role of women in art has been stolen by the patriarchy. Recognizing this as a feminist artist, I propose this festival as a way to open new spaces for women protagonists in the arts.
Ge Yulu’s artistic practice playfully pulls at the strings of a social system that, although seemingly all-encompassing, is in fact a malleable structure consisting of individual human beings. For his 2016 project Eye Contact, Ge positioned himself in front of a surveillance camera and stared directly into the lens for hours, then negotiated with a security guard to buy the footage.
"Members of the Reclaim Shakespeare Company jumped on stage at the Noël Coward theatre to deliver another surprise anti-BP performance. Just before the second half of a BP-sponsored Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) performance of Much Ado About Nothing was due to begin, the three actor-vists performed a short Shakespeare-inspired piece.
An intervention created by the April 25 2015 Queer Crisis Collective organized by the Helix Queer Performance Network (HQPN), and part of an ongoing queer resistance project mentored by Avram Finkelstein. Over a period of 2 weekends, 8 artists met at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics to design a creative intervention during Pride month in NYC.
This is a prime example of the marriage of art and activism. The Silence = Death poster is simple but extremely powerful representation of the obstacles the AIDS movement was facing (suppression of gay people + their problems, lack of awareness surrounding the pandemic).
“My intention was not to disappear in the environment but instead to let the environment take possession of me” Said Liu Bolin. With his strong photography, Bolin vanishes into the city, creating a powerful statement about our relationship, as humans, to our surroundings.
Shift Change Dress is a community fashion & art project that utilizes a shift dress sewing pattern as a medium for communication and action. Participants are encouraged to use the pattern as a blank canvas for their art or message and to share their work with the community.
Encarnación Aragoneses Urquijo (886-1952), commonly known by her literary pseudonym Elena Fortún, was a Spanish writer who focused in children and teenagers literature.
She was born in Madrid, where she studied Philosophy and Humanities. In 1908 she married Eusebio de Gorbea y Lemmi, a member of the republican army. They left the country after the Civil War to live frist in France and then in Argentina.
Troy, Michigan couldn't afford to keep its library open, so it scheduled a vote for a tax increase. A strong anti-tax group waged a dominating campaign against it. Posing as a political group, an outside advertising agency posted signs around town that said, "Vote to close Troy library Aug 2, book burning party Aug 5." We invited everyone to our Facebook page, adding Twitter, Foursquare, want ads, flyers and more to drive engagement.
Two dozen rogue "delegates" disrupted the corporate-sponsored welcome gala for the high-stakes Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations yesterday with a fake award ceremony and "mic check." Other activists, meanwhile, replaced hundreds of rolls of toilet paper (TP) throughout the conference venue with more informative versions, and projected a message on the venue's facade.
In recent years, a fashion for painting the human figure has preoccupied the art world, with an emphasis on race, gender and other urgent social issues. Yet another pressing topic in America has been curiously absent from art: abortion, which became all the more timely when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
Francisco Goya created “The Disasters of War” from 1810-1820. These 80 etchings and aquatints show scenes from the Spanish struggle against the French army under Napolean Bonaparte, who invaded Spain in 1808. When Napolean tried to install his brother Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Spain, the Spanish fought back, eventually aided by the British and the Portugese.
In March of 2022, JR, with the help of 100 volunteers, unfurled the portrait of five-year-old, Ukrainian refugee Valeriia in Lviv, Ukraine. Leaving Ukraine, JR saw firsthand how difficult it was for women and children to get to safety due to long queues at the border. In response, he released two NFTs of Valeriia as part of his solidarity project titled: Can Art Change the War?
I get catcalled on the street by a construction worker. He says that he can see I’m smart because I have enormous books. He tells me he’s reading the latest Zadie Smith novel. I invite him to join my book club, and spend all night fantasizing about his insightful commentary around non-linear plot structure.
Green Map UAE is a place to pin, share, and quite literally, map out locations or events that are unique ecologically, culturally and considered civic resources near home or while traveling within the UAE. This portal, apart of a larger mapmaking community across more than 63 countries, uses the same tools and mapping widgets as the major Green Maps projects in the United States and Europe.
An A.I. generated video of Donald Trump sucking Elon Musk's toes was broadcast at the Department of Housing and Development headquarters in DC in February of 2025. As an actual art piece, we can debate if the video itself is art. However, the caption, subject matter of the fake video, and chosen location to broadcast is definitely a strategic work of creative activism.
From the New York Times:
Even though Spain is constitutionally defined as a non-confessional nation, the Catholic Church still holds great power. For example, the Catholic Church is exempt from paying certain taxes, and can reclaim certain buildings as their property. This often creates frictions and conflicts with the activist groups and organizations that would prefer a more secular political environment.