Main Gallery

Zhang Huan, To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond
Practitioner:
Zhuang Huan, some laborers, fishermen, construction workers
Date:
Sep 1 1997
Zhuang Huan invited more than 40 men - laborers, fishermen, construction workers––who had recently migrated to Beijing from other areas of China to participate. Zhang Huan said, “In order to find these workers, I visited many of the shacks where they live.”
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NYC Art Exhibit Responded to "2016 Presidential Election Charade"
Practitioner:
Whitebox Art Space
Date:
Feb 1 2016
#makeamericagreatagain is a group exhibition of diverse media that ran during February and coincided with the initial Democratic and Republican primaries. The exhibition’s title is culled verbatim from Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
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Centros Sociales Okupados Autogestionados (CSOAs) in Spain: From abandoned houses to activist enclaves
Practitioner:
Movimiento Okupa
Date:
Jan 1 1980
A Centro Social Okupado Autogestionado (Self-Managed Occupied Social Center) or CSOA is an occupied building dedicated to the development of social and cultural activities. They are part of the “movimiento okupa” (“squatter movement”), a label created and circulated by the mainstream press.
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When I Walk
Practitioner:
Jason DaSilva
Date:
Mar 6 2013
I love New York. When I was younger, the city was my playground. You could find me on any given weekend catching brunch with a friend at a café, going to an East Village restaurant for dinner, and then hopping the subway, headed to a nightclub in Chelsea. But at age 25, nine years ago, I was told I had multiple sclerosis, and I saw my freedoms slowly vanish.
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Voices from the Conflict
Practitioner:
Benji Blatt, Aly Arkin
Date:
Dec 12 2023
Our NGO “Voices from the Conflict” seeks to open a conversation about the Israel-Palestine conflict through the lens of activist art. The history of the conflict dates back to the UN partition plan in 1947, followed by Israel’s independence in 1948. Since then, there have been several armed engagements between the two actors- causing massive civilian casualties and terrorism.
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AXS Lab
Practitioner:
Jason DaSilva, Alice Cook, Kevin Bluer, Simeon Hutner, Stephen Duffy, Jason Lemon and Elizabeth Daniels
Date:
Jan 1 2012
People with disabilities often suffer a ‘civil death’ due to exclusion primarily related to physical barriers of the built environment. AXS Map is building a social movement around inclusion for people with physical disabilities. AXS Map is a crowd-sourced platform for mapping wheelchair accessibility of buildings and places, and sharing that information across a network.
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Street Art and Activism With 'The Slumlord Project' In Baltimore
Practitioner:
The Slumlord Watch
Date:
Oct 9 2013
In a twist on the Broken Windows Theory, street artists are using their skills to combat urban blight in Baltimore with "The Slumlord Project". By drawing the attention of neighbors to abandoned and vacant properties and giving pertinent ownership information to take action on, 17 artists are spray painting and wheat-pasting in a D.I.Y.
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Flour Bluff students expand education through activism
Practitioner:
Flour Bluff High School students
Date:
Apr 30 2012
CORPUS CHRISTI — Many Flour Bluff ISD students have developed an extracurricular activity that takes their education to the streets, to social media and toward a path of change: activism.Much of the students' passion stems from the April 1 suicide of 16-year-old Ted "Teddy" Molina, a former Flour Bluff Independent School District student.Ted's family has attributed his death to bullying.
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Queering the Map
Practitioner:
Lucas LaRochelle
Date:
Jan 1 2017
Queering the Map is a community generated counter-mapping platform for digitally archiving LGBTQ2IA+ experience in relation to physical space.
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Hoax Award Issued at TPP Gala
Practitioner:
Katherine MacKinnon
Date:
May 12 2012
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.
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Bed-Stuy Aquarium
Practitioner:
Hajj-Malik Lovick and Gav and Je-Quan Irving
Date:
Aug 1 2024
The Bed-Stuy Aquarium (also known as the Hancock Street Bed-Stuy Aquarium) is a makeshift goldfish pond located on a sidewalk in the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. The pond, originally formed by a puddle from a leaky fire hydrant, garnered attention from locals and the press beginning at the time of its creation in August 2024.
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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Snake
Practitioner:
Natalie Ball
Date:
Jan 1 2018
Natalie Ball’s work challenges dominant stories of Native American identities, taking to task the historical and visual legacies that misrepresent what it means to be “Indian.” She dives deeply into Indigenous histories and forms of knowledge, the use of language, and a wide range of materials—including animal hides, clothing, and synthetic hair—to create a new narrative around Indigenous experiences and identities.
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THE SLAVE SERIES: QUILTS BY GWENDOLYN A. MAGEE
Practitioner:
GWENDOLYN A. MAGEE
Date:
Apr 24 2014
The image is stark. And shocking. A black man, his ankles shackled, his head hanging away from the viewer, stands in relief on a field of white. Chains stretching to the image's borders on the left and right pull his arms taut. Fourteen crimson marks crosshatch his back. Within the dark fabric that frames "86 Lashes to Go," a small rectangle is labeled simply "salt."
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The Great Wall of Los Angeles
Practitioner:
Judy Baca
Date:
Apr 11 2001
The Great Wall of Los Angeles represents a minority perspective/p.o.v. of the history of the city. Judy Baca first began the mural in 1974 through SPARC at the rise of the Chicano movement. The project was a part of the community and completed by Baca, other local artists and local youth volunteers. This mural is effective in depicting the racial tension of the past, but maybe it would be enhanced by a prospective future.
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Beijing Sitong Bridge protest
Practitioner:
Peng Lifa
Date:
Oct 13 2022
The Beijing Sitong Bridge protest was a protest in China during the prelude to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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Smithsonian Collection of "Occupy Wall Street" Posters on View at Wesleyan
Practitioner:
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Wesleyan University's Davison Art Center
Date:
Apr 5 2013
After collecting street art and memorabilia from "Occupy Wall Street" since the fall of 2011, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History has lent its collection of Occupy Wall Street posters to Wesleyan's Davison Art Center. The posters will make up an exhibition entitled “Artists Take Action: Protest Posters Today,” which is on display in the University's gallery from April 5 to May 26.
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Israeli artists draw a red line to High Court in protest of judicial reform
Practitioner:
Israeli Artists
Date:
Mar 16 2023
The "Day of Disruption" kicked off earlier than planned early on Thursday morning when dozens of Israeli artists painted a red line on the road to Israel's High Court of Justice in Jerusalem.
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Looping! Finding Your Inner Child in Your Underwear on the Streets
Practitioner:
Matthew Silver, Fritz Donnelley
Date:
Jan 1 2014
What is looping? Somewhere in between art, activism, and wackiness is this liberating experience. Matthew Silver and Fritz Donnelley, two New York City based performance artists got lonely acting silly in their underwear in public. Knowing that there were enough free spirits to join them, they started "Looping" and invited everyone to join them.
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Acción Poética
Practitioner:
Acción Poética
Date:
Feb 25 1996
The Acción Poética movement is a literary phenomenon that began in Monterrey, Mexico in 1996. It was founded by Mexican poet Armando Alanis Pulido and involves painting and intervening abandoned walls in cities with fragments of poetry. The content is usually love poems or optimistic phrases. Also, some phrases refer to the current situation in the cities (though one of their rules is to not talk about politics or religious beliefs).
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Deconstructing The 1975’s ‘Love It If We Made It’
Practitioner:
The 1975
Date:
Jul 19 2018
The 1975’s ‘Love It If We Made It’ is a dystopian love story that feels appropriate for the last 18 months. Even though it was written before the pandemic, its relevancy has only increased tenfold since its release in 2018.
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