Main Gallery

Artist Rufina Bazlova uses embroidery as a form of ‘gentle protest’
Practitioner:
Rufina Bazlova
Date:
Jan 1 2020
Rufina Bazlova is not afraid to surrender her art to activism. Born in Belarus, a former Soviet republic ruled by the authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko for 29 years now, Bazlova knows all too well that being apolitical is a privilege many Eastern Europeans cannot afford. 2020 was a pivotal year for Belarus, not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic but also the presidential elections, which declared Lukashenko president for the sixth time.
Read more
The technopolitical struggle for free culture
Practitioner:
Xnet
Date:
Aug 25 2015
The Spanish 15M/Indignados movement represents a citizen break-up with the current political system while proposing an alternative one, changing the prevailing participation patterns while transforming the cultural, social and political structures in the country. Nobody expected the Spanish r-Evolution and there it goes; still advancing and strong.
Read more
Thousands rally in Paris to protest slaying of Holocaust survivor
Practitioner:
public
Date:
Mar 28 2018
Thousands of people marched through Paris on Wednesday evening to protest the killing of a Holocaust survivor in her home over the weekend, in what investigators are treating as an anti-Semitic crime. Mireille Knoll, 85, was stabbed 11 times and her apartment was set on fire in the attack, French authorities said. Two men in their 20s have been arrested, one a neighbor of Knoll's and the other a homeless man, a judicial source told CNN.
Read more
Drawing For Peace
Practitioner:
Aaron Hughes
Date:
Oct 1 2006
Aaron Hughes, an artist-activist and Iraq War veteran walked into the middle of a busy intersection in Champaign, Il. where he was then going to college, and propped up a signboard that read: “I am an Iraq War Veteran. I am guilty. I am alone. I am drawing for peace.”
Read more
Weapons Of Mass Instruction
Practitioner:
Raul Lemesoff
Date:
Apr 9 2012
If you're a bibliophile you'll get a kick out of the car-turned-library that can be found in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Artist Raul Lemesoff took an old 1979 Ford Falcon, a popular mode of transport amongst the military forces of its time, and transformed it into a mobile library shaped like a tank.
Read more
Occupation of Alcatraz Island
Practitioner:
Native American Activists
Date:
Nov 20 1969
The beacon flashed incessantly. On. Off. On again. Like some sort of traffic light gone crazy, it pierced the thick nighttime mist hovering over San Francisco Bay. The light sent a message five miles across the dark waters from Ghirardelli Square to Alcatraz Island. There, cheers erupted as the light flashed the words, "Go Indians!"
Read more
Jesus: Creative Activist
Practitioner:
Jesus Christ, the disciples
Date:
Aug 23 0030
Regardless of one's spiritual ties (or lack thereof) to Christianity, all artistic activists can take a note or two from Jesus's playbook--the actions of "a radical Mediterranean Jewish peasant building a revolutionary movement two millennia ago."1.  Jesus: Media Mogul.  Jesus was a master of making a scene, ensuring that news would spread.  If he was around today, the media wouldn't be able to get enough of him.
Read more
AIDS activism through billboards; Untitled (1991)
Practitioner:
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Date:
Feb 20 1991
In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres lost his partner Ross to AIDS (the artist would face the same fate in 1996). In a tragic and highly personal tribute to Ross, Gonzalez-Torres took a picture of his still-indented empty bed - an image of universal intimacy and loss - and placed it on two dozen commercial billboard spaces throughout New York.
Read more
269
Practitioner:
Alex Bojour
Date:
Oct 2 2012
On October 2nd, three animal rights activists shocked the world with an extraordinarily bold act, organized by Alex Bojour. They all were branded alive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA4q1pU957c) as a symbolic act of identification with the animals that are branded and used by the human species, conveying the message of animal equality.
Read more
SARS
Practitioner:
Emily Shinada and Haley SIlverman
Date:
Apr 19 2008
A video collaboration betweenHayley Silverman and Emily Shinada. Using clips from a Japanese pornography film, the video highlights fears of interpersonal connection and explores the objectification of women.  It was on view at Alogon Gallery for theWomen Get Fucked exhibition.
Read more
The Hidden Truth: Intimate Partner Violence Revealed
Practitioner:
Art Works for Change, Louise Bourgeois
Date:
Jan 21 2011
Louise Bourgeois is a well known French-American artist born in Paris in 1911. Much of her artwork is geared towards female empowerment as she puts focus on the trials and tribulations of what it is like being a woman in a patriarchal society. As a result, many people associate her with the feminist movement. This idea of feminism can be seen in some of Bourgeois’ artwork, which resembles women empowerment.
Read more
Project Catalyst
Practitioner:
Artel Great
Date:
Apr 9 2014
Project Catalyst specializes in designing culturally rich entertainment experiences that re-imagine the empowering possibilities of cinema and media from a multicultural perspective. Project Catalyst exemplifies the efficacy and essential value of art and cinema at the intersections of social justice and the modern technologies of everyday life.
Read more
In Search of Magic - A Proposal for a New Constitution for The Republic of Iceland.
Practitioner:
Libia Castro (b. 1970) & Ólafur Ólafsson (b. 1973)
Date:
Oct 3 2020
The duo Libia Castro (b. 1970) & Ólafur Ólafsson (b. 1973) are the recipients of the Art Prize 2021 for their collective performance with the Magic Team In Search of Magic - A Proposal for a New Constitution for The Republic of Iceland.
Read more
JustSeeds Artists' Cooperative
Practitioner:
JustSeeds Artists' Cooperative
Date:
Jan 1 1998
Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative is a decentralized network of 24 artists committed to making print and design work that reflects a radical social, environmental, and political stance. With members working from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, Justseeds operates both as a unified collaboration of similarly minded printmakers and as a loose collection of creative individuals with unique viewpoints and working methods.
Read more
Reclaiming the Domestic
Practitioner:
Mary Sibande
Date:
Jan 7 2014
The work of South African artist Mary Sibande tells the tale of her alter-ego Sophie, a domestic worker who finds refuge in dreams where she emancipates herself from the ghoulish realism of an ordinary existence, cleaning other people's homes. Exploring the construction of identity within post-apartheid South Africa, Sibande's work probes the stereotypical contextualisation of the black female body.
Read more
NJ Hero David McCauley & Rise Up Gallery Empowering Disabled Artists from JC to Miami
Practitioner:
David McCauley, Rise Up Gallery
Date:
Jan 4 2013
By Summer Dawn Hortillosa Jersey City’s got an art scene of movers and shakers but few can say they’ve done what David McCauley has in the past two years.
Read more
Singing to Disrupt Housing Auction
Practitioner:
Occupy Wall Street
Date:
Apr 17 2012
Demonstrators aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement sang their way into handcuffs during a Bronx foreclosure auction Monday to protest the housing crisis that continues to plague the borough. They serenaded a courtroom of real estate investors with the lyrics, "Y'all are speculating off people's pain. With all due respect, you should be ashamed."
Read more
Chinatown gets animated in campaign against 76ers arena plan with bevy of protest art on display
Practitioner:
Supporters of the No Arena in Chinatown movement
Date:
Jan 9 2023
Wander around Chinatown and you'll find a simple message plastered along storefronts and the sides of buildings: NO ARENA.
Read more
Rainbow Makeover: Swedish Response to Russian anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination.
Practitioner:
Local LGBT activists
Date:
Aug 12 2013
Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates offered their colorful stance on Russia's controversial anti-gay legislation over the weekend.
Read more
THEY Still want to kill us: Film of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre to Air at Arts Center
Practitioner:
UMass Amherst Arts Center, Yoram Savion
Date:
May 13 2021
Joining art institutes nationally, a film on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre will premiere at the UMass Amherst Arts Center. This is especially important given its will be the 100th anniversary of the tragic event of when "Black Wall Street" was burned to the ground. It is widely known as one of the most violent events, let alone racially charged ones, in US History.
Read more

Pages