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Alexander PC

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After two successful installments in New York City, the third annual event heads to the gun violence plagued city of Chicago at the South Side Community Art Center.

The epidemics of racial and social injustice have been at the forefront of many Americans as of late. From Trayvon Martin to Sandra Bland to Philando Castile, the unwarranted deaths of black men and women in this democratic nation has inspired and pushed many to address the frustrating and often debated topic-turned-hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Many have taken action by simply taking part in peaceful protests. Others like artist Steff Reed have decided to take on a more artistic route.

The New York City educator and activist noticed the increased urgency to bring awareness to the issue of police brutality and anti-blackness in America. He then tapped Dionne Victoria, a visual artist, community leader, entrepreneur, and teacher from Chicago, to assist in co-curating The Frontline Exhibition, a night event that brings creators and thinkers together in one room to start a conversation that yield to concrete strategies.

After two successful installments in New York City, the third annual event heads to the gun violence plagued city of Chicago at the South Side Community Art Center (3831 South Michigan Avenue) on Saturday night (July 16).

"Bringing Frontline to Chicago has been one of my key missions since its inception. The city has seen a high level of police brutality and gang violence within the recent months and now more than ever is the time to take a stand."

"While we examine what police and society does to us, let's also take a moment look at the violence we bring upon each other. We should be just as upset and moved to fight for change at gang violence as we are at police brutality because they both stem from the same place."

The free and open to the public event features a panel discussion and live performances. Attendees are also able to meet and purchase artwork from the showcased artists and network, while holding conversations to advocate social change. Frontline Exhibition includes a six-week video series addressing police brutality, mass incarceration and more issues in America, airing exclusively on YouTube.

Frontline Exhibition Chicago goes down tonight (July 16) from 7pm-10pm. For more information, visit iamsteffreed.com/frontlineexhibition.

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'Frontline Exhibition' Highlights Police Brutality, Gang Violence And Systemic Anti-Blackness

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After two successful installments in New York City, the third annual event heads to the gun violence plagued city of Chicago at the South Side Community Art Center. The epidemics of racial and social injustice have been at the forefront of many Americans as of late.

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Latin American Art

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Deep red Louisiana is not necessarily where you'd expect someone to try to launch an art contest focused on the perils of climate change.

But Frank Eakin, a green energy advocate who grew up in Louisiana and is now based in the Houston area, saw art as an "ideal channel," particularly for young people, to grapple with such a big, scary and controversial topic.

"They hear a lot about it on television. Their curiosity is drawn, and you can imagine there is some fear," explained Eakin.

So was born the Climate Champions Youth Art Contest. While he hopes to roll it nationwide over time, a trial run recently occurred in Louisiana.

A native of Bunkie and graduate of Baton Rouge Magnet High, Eakin has had a varied career, including stints building ships and exporting Cajun seafood. With the art contest, he is bringing together his current work in entertainment as well as a separate endeavor involving digital marketing to residences of energy not derived from fossil fuels.

Eakin's upbringing also brought him into close contact with another cause: racial injustice.

His mother, Sue Eakin, who taught history at LSU Alexandria and died in 2009, spent her life working to prove the truth behind Solomon Northup's "Twelve Years A Slave," producing annotated editions of that 1853 memoir, thereby helping to rescue it from obscurity.

The Climate Champions Youth Contest's trial run in Louisiana began in November. That month, school-age children composed and submitted visual art addressing their concerns as well as offering possible solutions to climate change.

State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton agreed to help, spreading the word about the contest to libraries across the state, which alerted schools to the project. She said she viewed it as "something positive that helps everybody and drives people to the library."

Hamilton, who has known Frank Eakin since he participated in a Louisiana Book Festival a few years ago, said she's also a longtime admirer of his mother's work.

"I think on many levels he continues her work of being good and kind," Hamilton said.

To enter, child artists needed only to take a cellphone picture of their work and upload it online. The number of those offering submissions ended up only in the "low hundreds," Eakin said, but he said he wasn't disappointed.

"It was our first time," he said. "We were happy because of the quality. It is a controversial subject matter."

First-, second- and third-place winners were announced Dec. 19 on the contest's Facebook page. There were three sets of winners because students in upper, middle and lower grades competed separately. They received up to $100 in cash, as well as a certificate and special T-shirt.

The winning children live in towns across Louisiana, from Baldwin to Pitkin. Two are from Baton Rouge.

Mary-Avery Rodrigue, a sixth grader at Glasgow Middle School in Baton Rouge, won the middle grades category with her picture, "Up To Us." Using colored pencils, Rodrigue shows a pair of hands holding up a deteriorating Earth. Not only is the globe melting, it's covered with tree stumps.

"It's about how the beauty of the world is waning away, and it's up to us to maintain it," explained Rodrigue, who is 13.

Rodrigue said her art teacher at Glasgow, Geeta Dave, told her about the contest and helped her develop her ideas. She said Dave pushes her art students to enter contests as a way of spreading their work to a wider audience.

Omar Charcas also learned about the contest from his art teacher, Heather Berrios at Baton Rouge Magnet High, but said he created his work, "The Old Boot," on his own. It tied for second place in the upper grades category.

Using a charcoal pencil, the 16-year-old created an oil-stained beach scene. A large, battered boot shaped like the state of Louisiana sits at the water's edge. The toe of the boot, however, has worn away, allowing the sea to invade.

"Louisiana is one of the (states) most severely affected by climate change and global warming, particularly because of coastal erosion," Charcas explained. "Since we are on the coast, I felt like it was important to get some of that message across with my sketch."

He said he drew the picture on his floor, using one of his dad's old boots as a model.

After narrowing the entries down to a set of 30 finalists, Eakin called upon a celebrity panel of judges to pick the winners.

"I selected them because I know they were passionate about climate change," Eakin explained.

Louis Gossett Jr. is the best known judge on the panel. The 83-year-old Academy Award and Emmy-winning actor has had roles in "Roots," "An Officer and a Gentleman" and, most recently, the acclaimed HBO show "Watchman."

Eakin and Gossett came to know each other in 2013 when Gossett narrated an audiobook of "Twelve Years A Slave," a tie-in to the film of the same name, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture that year.

In an interview, Gossett described Eakin as a brother, saying with a laugh that he'd do "anything that Frank wants, short of murder."

Gossett, who is active in many social causes, said he has long been worried about climate change.

"We can't go to another planet to try again," he said. "We've got to get it right here."

Looking through the finalists, Gossett said Rodrigue's picture stood out.

"All of them were good but this one was special," he said.

The hands cradling the globe point how collective action is needed, he said.

"I have the same philosophy about the best way to solve the problems of the planet," Gossett said.

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In new contest, Louisiana children turn worries about climate change into art

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Deep red Louisiana is not necessarily where you'd expect someone to try to launch an art contest focused on the perils of climate change. But Frank Eakin, a green energy advocate who grew up in Louisiana and is now based in the Houston area, saw art as an "ideal channel," particularly for young people, to grapple with such a big, scary and controversial topic.

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A sense of urgency is at the heart of a number of climate change-themed exhibitions and projects in the US and Canada. Mel Chin, Douglas Coupland and Edward Burtynsky are among the many artists behind current and forthcoming works that look at environmental issues, and the pictures they paint of the future are stark. "We are fucked," says Alexis Rockman, whose Great Lakes Cycle series of paintings is now touring the US. "You can't even imagine what is headed our way in terms of fresh water."

Rockman, who has been creating ecologically minded work since the 1990s, often using materials such as soil and plants from the landscapes he depicts, says he is concerned that environmental problems are "unsolvable". But, he adds: "I can't think of anything more important to make work about." As well as creating his Great Lakes Cycle, which shows both the richness of the fresh water ecosystem and the threats it faces from industry and climate change, Rockman has co-organised The Solace of Amnesia, a group show in Vermont that obliquely references the subject, based on works from the Hall Art Foundation's collection (until 25 November).

Other shows take a more straightforward view. Indicators: Artists on Climate Change opened at the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York last month (until 11 November), with works by 17 artists including Mark Dion, Maya Lin and Mike Nelson. And in July, the final part of Mel Chin's New York City-wide exhibition All Over the Place comes to Times Square with Unmoored, an augmented reality piece that presents a flooded vision of the site. "When you're dealing [with] social [issues], it's best to try to deliver something," Chin told us before the opening of the show at the Queens Museum, which includes a work on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. "Being aware and informed is not enough."

Artists such as Justin Brice Guariglia, who is also in the Storm King's show, take this engagement a step further by working directly with scientists. This summer, he is joining a group of climate scientists from the Woods Hole Research Center on a trip to study permafrost in Alaska as an artist-in-residence. The resulting work will be shown at the Anchorage Museum, which aims to send the show on tour through the lower 48 states. "We're interested in more than social impact, we're interested in social change," says Julie Decker, the museum's director. "Artists have the [research] mentality to connect with scientists, do deep dives into things and create high-profile projects that can start to create change."

For scientists, bringing along an artist can help their research reach a wider public. "We're always looking for different ways to communicate the science, because not everyone is out there reading scientific journals or New York Times articles," says Alison Smart, the vice president for strategy and advancement at the Woods Hole Research Center.

"Artists are modulators of attention," says Christine Shaw, the director and curator of the Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga, who is organising a year-long festival in the Ontario city called The Work of Wind: Air, Land, Sea. Along with public programmes and publications starting this month, the festival will feature an exhibition of 13 artists projects opening in September, including a hot-air balloon made of community-sourced plastic shopping bags by the Argentine Tomás Saraceno and an installation by the New Zealand- born, Berlin-based Julian Oliver that has a wind turbine producing energy to mine cryptocurrency that is then used to fund climate research. "There is a narrative potency in the way artists are telling stories about climate change," Shaw says.

This power has become more important as the administration of US President Donald Trump works to dismantle federal regulations on industrial pollution, and the head of the country's Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, denies that climate change is caused by humans. (Pruitt is currently facing a dozen federal investigations into his spending and management, including his ties to energy lobbyists.)

"Our interest is in advancing scientifically sound climate policy, and right now that's not happening on the federal level in the US," says Dave McGlinchey, a spokesman for Woods Hole. "We have a very small window of time in which we can take effective action on climate change, and we are wasting that with an administration that doesn't take the problem seriously." Through their work, artists are making it clear how quickly time is running out.

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Artists deliver climate-change message that time is running out

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A sense of urgency is at the heart of a number of climate change-themed exhibitions and projects in the US and Canada. Mel Chin, Douglas Coupland and Edward Burtynsky are among the many artists behind current and forthcoming works that look at environmental issues, and the pictures they paint of the future are stark.

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"Behold my works, how beautiful they are, but do not destroy them, as there is no one to repair them after me."
Midrash (teaching of enlightenment)

The transition from being a trendy, hard-edged Minimalist artist in New York City in the 1960s to a climate activist artist in the Caribbean was both dramatic and irreversible when I moved from Manhattan to Jamaica in 1969. I had been caught up with the New York art scene, fortunate to have some of the great artists of that time as my friends - notably sculptor David Smith, Andy Warhol, and surrealist painter Mati Klarwein, who each shaped my work in diverse yet powerful ways.

My works vary and often combine diverse approaches: classical painting, multimedia installations, and collaborative projects with like-minded colleagues. These seemingly diverse styles and media keep reappearing in unexpected ways, as I approach each work as unique, applying those techniques most evocative to bringing the work of art to life and engaging the audience. Bridging the gap between the viewer and the artwork has long been one of my greatest ambitions, and I incorporate any and all means that further that communication.

Struck by the exotic tropical vegetation and verdant landscape of Jamaica, my work changed from welded steel sculpture to a personal hyper-aware form of realism both celebrating nature and the land, while raising awareness of ecological degradation. The earliest Jamaican works were quite literal celebrations of nature: intricate pen and ink drawings of the convoluted, slyly erotic tropical vegetation; airbrush watercolors of floral and foliate forms loaded with subliminal meaning; large-scale landscapes both celebrating the land while alluding to its painful history of agricultural and human exploitation; and symbolic portrayals of existential issues such as the rapid degradation of the sea, the wounding of the land through reckless agricultural practice, and the beauty and power of womanhood - women being the bearers and protectors of life. Yet some works were sheer celebrations of the beauty and power of nature itself, transcending our parasitic human intervention on the planet.

The Deep, oil and casein on canvas and driftwood, 7'6″ X 10′, 2019

For nearly twenty years, these themes were interwoven in my paintings, combining and overlapping to evoke "...life, hope and the spirit of all living things," one of my favorite quotes about my work by art writer and curator Eleanor Hartney.

My husband, architect and urban planner Eran Spiro, who originally drew me to move to Jamaica, was a constant source of new ideas. He introduced me to the concepts of land use and human settlements interacting with nature, which completely altered the way I now viewed the environment around me. Along with Barbara Marx Hubbard and Bucky Fuller, Eran was a founding member the Committee for the Future in Washington, DC, which later became the World Future Society. We often discussed the future of the planet, and what was openly known for decades: that climate change was inevitable if no urgent measures were taken.

DEEP SEE, shipping containers and artworks, 48′ X 20′, Art Miami 2017

In 1988, my family and I barely survived Hurricane Gilbert. The most powerful and largest hurricane on record, Gilbert chewed its way across the backbone of Jamaica, causing apocalyptic damage. Our home was devastated as we were hit by the tornadoes in the eye of the storm. Eran, myself, and our two children, Benji and Yasmin, were nearly sucked away by the force of the wind. This was a wake-up call of biblical proportions, warning that climate change had begun and that every effort had to be made to change direction and chart a new course for the future.

DEEP SEE, The Living Room, Art Miami 2017

In the ensuing decades, I focused on a series of specific themes that addressed the interlocking issues of destruction of the planet and its life forms; spiritual renewal, necessary to repair ourselves and the damage to the planet; examination of our humanity as custodians; preservation of the life-giving sea, and, most recently; specific climate solutions, both immediate and futuristic.

One of my key works, Yamima was completed in 1996. Originally named Yemeya for the Yoruba goddess of the sea, she began as a maternal figure to protect the sea and travelers on her surface, particularly the Cuban balseros who were going to sea in droves on little more than toilet seats to reach the golden shores of Florida. Three-quarters through the painting, while struggling to bring her to life, I renamed her Yamima (in Hebrew "yam" means "sea" and "ima" means "mother"). All of a sudden she looked back at me, and the rest of the painting painted itself.

Yamima, oil and casein on canvas, 54′ X 36′

While painting these poems to the planet, my own climate awareness was evolving as a result of living with the work, encountering new scientific evidence about climate change, and moving to Miami for ten years from 1999-2009, which put me in the center of ground zero for climate change. In 2003, I founded the MiART Foundation in Miami to address environmental and humanitarian issues, advancing transformation through the power and beauty of art.

Searching for an aesthetically beautiful metaphor for reconnecting with the source, I began the Aurora Series of large canvases in 2009, embracing climate sensitive issues such as the extinction of species, eco-migration, hubris and the grandiose ambitions of man, the crossroads where fossil fuel encounters nature, and a personal narrative of my years in Miami.

More recently, I have embarked on a series of portraits exploring the qualities of human nature that give us hope for the future and indeed make us human, not greed machines. This series is ongoing, along with climate related projects and collaborations with other like-minded artists.

Will the world survive the current wave of greed, ignorance, and malice infecting humanity, which is destroying our planet? Hopefully, if all aware humans exert their will and their skill to turn us away from this nihilistic course. For my part, I will continue to communicate these issues through beauty and the universal language of art. We are the solution.

(Top image: Detail from Yamima, oil and casein on canvas, 54′ X 36)

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Tina Spiro is a New York-born artist residing in Jamaica and Miami. Her career in art spans five decades exhibiting in museums, galleries and biennials internationally. Her art is dedicated to environmental and humanitarian issues, embracing a combination of technical and conceptual practices: classical painting, minimalist sculpture inspired by her mentor David Smith, and pop elements derived from her friend Andy Warhol. She has also had a distinguished career as an art historian in the field of Caribbean Art, curator of large-scale exhibitions (Omniart I, II and II for the City of Miami) and educator in art history and studio art.

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Fifty Years of Creating Climate Conscious Art

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"Behold my works, how beautiful they are, but do not destroy them, as there is no one to repair them after me." Midrash (teaching of enlightenment) The transition from being a trendy, hard-edged Minimalist artist in New York City in the 1960s to a climate activist artist in the Caribbean was both dramatic and irreversible...

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This was drawn by a senior:) I had to share the awesomeness :)

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This was drawn by a senior:) I had to share the awesomeness :)

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Social Justice Advocate art sketches (Dec 3, 2020 at 10_41 AM)

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How the Chicano Movement Championed Mexican-American Identity and Fought for Change | HISTORY

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Chicano activists took on a name that had long been a racial slur—and wore it with pride.

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Police in Nigeria are harassing and killing people for anything at all for no reason!! Example: if you have an iPhone they would harass you, 🤬 you, kill you, and forget you.

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Shows inequality in hierarchies.

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I find that peace and spirituality are the most important things in life

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Climate change ❤️❤️

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Margaret M.

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Zymia McCord

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Black Lives Matter, an art print by Chloe Friedlein

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Black Lives Matter Poster - 18x24 Art Print

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Jamaal C

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my BLM collage from early 2020

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Jean Michel Basquiat had so much to say in his artwork. His work deals with lots of social issues with "calculated improvisation :)"