Activist art

Banksy – Cardinal Sin, 2006, defaced stone bust, bathroom tiles, 180 x 40 x 40 cm feat

Banksy’s Cardinal Sin – An expose of rot within this institution

Sculptures, Street Art / 5 minutes of reading

This piece by Banksy is unlike anything he has done before. For the street artist, vandalizing an ancient statue and putting on it his personal touch drove the intended message home. Looking at the sculpture, it is clearly the bust of a catholic priest, complete with a cross pendant and mass vestments. …

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War is Over – John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s massive poster campaign

Installations / 11 minutes of reading

What was it? The War Is Over peace campaign has just marked its 50th years since it was conceived. In such a well-orchestrated move, the world woke up on the morning of December 15, 1969, to a worldwide propagation of a peace message. Deliberately intended to draw the crowds and reach as many people as …

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Barbara Kruger – Your body is a battleground

Paintings / 5 minutes of reading

Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground) is an iconic 1989 silkscreen portrait made by artist, feminist and activist Barbara Kruger. Though the poster was meant for the pro-choice march on April 9th, 1989, in DC, the portrait is now used mainly to voice the artist’s own opinion about gender inequality. The piece is much …

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Banksy’s Rage, The Flower Thrower – Everything you need to know

Paintings, Street Art / 7 minutes of reading

Rage, the Flower Thrower Rage, the Flower Thrower or Love is in the Air is one of the most iconic stencils by Banksy. It shows a masked Palestinian throwing a bouquet of flowers. Banksy is known for displaying his works out in the open for the public to view, in places such as walls in …

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Félix González-Torres’ bed billboards – Beautifully confrontational

Installations / 5 minutes of reading

Who was Félix González-Torres Being born in Cuba, Félix González-Torres (1957-1996) left his homeland at an early age. He moved to New York City in 1979 and registered at the Whitney Independent Study Program. His revelation to Critical Theory granted him a source of inspiration and influence, especially in the literature of French thinkers Michel …

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Martha Rosler invented the Semiotics of the Kitchen

Performances, Video Art / 5 minutes of reading

Semiotics of the Kitchen is a work by Martha Rosler. She produced it in 1975 by using an alphabet worth of kitchen tools to participate in a feminist critique of the traditional role of gender. Her acts in the 6 minutes recording are characterized by frustration and anger at the patriarchal role of women. …

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Burmese artist Htein Lin & his powerful hand sculptures

Installations / 3 minutes of reading

Who is Htein Lin? Htein Lin (b. 1966) is an artist and pro-democracy activist. From 1998 to 2004, he was jailed for challenging the military dictatorship of Myanmar. Htein Lin was born in the tiny village of Mezaligon, in the country Burma, which was later named Myanmar, in 1989. In 1978, aged 12, Lin started …

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Jennifer-Allora-Guillermo-Calzadilla-Land-Mark-Foot-Prints-2001-2002-feat

Allora & Calzadilla’s Land Mark – You never saw footprints like these

Performances / 3 minutes of reading

What are Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla known for? In this fragmented world of the 21st century, if we are to name one element that unifies many distinct strings and grants them with a character of their own, then it would inevitably be art. Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla undertook this very principle in their …

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Emily Jacir - Where We Come From (Munir), 2001-2003, Chromogenic print and text panel, feat

Emily Jacir’s Where we come from & The power of her passport

Mixed media / 3 minutes of reading

Armed with an American passport, Emily Jacir knew she could do something to liberate fellow Palestinians to better their lives. So, when she asked them if there was anything she could do for them right there in Palestine, anywhere in Palestine, she had prepared herself for the sacrifice. Emily Jacir using her American passport …

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Shirin-Neshat-Turbulent-1998-black-and-white-video-installation-2

Shirin Neshat’s Turbulent forces you to take a side

Performances / 5 minutes of reading

What is Turbulent? Turbulent is a two-screen film installation by famous Iranian artist Shirin Neshat. It is among her most critically acclaimed works, having won her a Lion d’Or at the Venice Biennale back in 1999. It is also her first-ever venture into the world of video, an art medium that later played a significant …

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Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch was slowly disappearing

Environmental Art, Installations / 5 minutes of reading

You probably know Olafur Eliasson, the Danish-Icelandic artist. Some of his exceptional artworks focus on climate and environmental changes. In 2003, he installed The Weather Project, which remains one of Tate Modern’s popular installations. He is also known for his freestanding waterfall in Versailles, his installation in which he installed a riverbed in a …

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Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991, clocks, paint on wall, overall 35.6 x 71.2 x 7 cm feat

Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Clocks / Perfect Lovers – What does it mean?

Installations / 5 minutes of reading

Who was Felix Gonzalez-Torres? Felix Gonzalez-Torres was a Cuban-born American artist known for his minimal sculptures and installations in which he used day to day materials such as clocks, lightbulbs, stacks of papers, and even packaged hard candies. Many people believe some of his work is a reflection of his experience with AIDS. Felix Gonzalez-Torres …

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Dawoud Bey’s Birmingham project & this 1963 tragedy

Photography / 5 minutes of reading

Birmingham Project Dawoud Bey’s career focuses on portraying American youth as well as those from marginalized communities. He does so with an uncommon degree of sympathy and complexity. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing His Birmingham Project is a deeply felt and abstractly rich tribute to the victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing …

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Barbara Kruger’s I shop therefore I am – What you should know

Paintings / 5 minutes of reading

I Shop Therefore I Am (1987) is the work of Barbara Kruger. It became an iconic artwork, being reproduced on items such as shopping bags and other consumer products such as t-shirts. Kruger has often derived images from the mass media and pasted the words over them, particularly in Futura Bold. She then uses …

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Why were there seesaws at the border?

Installations / 5 minutes of reading

The US-Mexico border wall has become a battleground for political theater, but also various artistic interventions. One of these outstanding artworks is the pink seesaws. They went viral after they were installed by the two creative architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello. Between the erect giant steel posts of the border fence lie …

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How Hans Haacke took on the Rockefellers with his MoMA Poll

Installations / 2 minutes of reading

Who is Hans Haacke? Hans Haacke: Fighting the establishment 3 min 37 sec Hans Haacke was born in 1936 in Cologne, Germany. He studied at Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel and later on worked as a guard and tour guide on the second documenta in 1959 in the same city. All this …

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Nick Cave’s Soundsuits – What you should know

Performances, Sculptures / 9 minutes of reading

Who is Nick Cave? Nick Cave is an American fabric sculptor, performance artist, and dancer. He was born on February 4, 1959, in Fulton, Missouri. Currently, Cave lives in Chicago, Illinois, where he works at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as the director of the graduate fashion program. Nick Cave’s work is …

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Arthur Jafa: Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death

Mixed media / 3 minutes of reading

For an artist who has been fighting for the recognition of black art and black visual culture for decades, the breakthrough in the form of enjoying the art scene spotlight is victory. This is where Arthur Jafa and his Love is the message are in terms of appreciation for his work. Days after the …

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Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species – Everything you need to know

Paintings / 12 minutes of reading

Endangered Species is one of Andy Warhol’s most influential artworks. It raises awareness of the situation of extinct animals around the world. Warhol created the entire project in 1983, at a time when he had mastered the concepts of capitalism and production. Prints of Endangered Species were exhibited in New York and sold at various …

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Emily Jacir’s creative way of preserving Palestinian history

Mixed media, Photography / 4 minutes of reading

Emily Jacir is a Palestinian artist and a filmmaker. She was born in Bethlehem in 1973 and spent most of her life in Saudi Arabia. She later attended high school in Italy and eventually attended Memphis College of Arts where she graduated with an art degree. One of her most renowned work is Ex …

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Sebastião Salgado’s Salt of the Earth – Why you should watch it

Photography / 6 minutes of reading

Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian born documentary photographer. He is also a photojournalist who has traveled to about 120 countries to pursue his passion: photography. Salgado was raised in Brazil by middle-class parents and later studied economics. He was then involved in student protests against the military dictatorship, so he had to flee his …

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