Protest art encompasses various acts, creations, and lenses that seek justice through creative means. It also transcends styles, techniques, and media, allowing anyone to partake in artistic protest with any materials available to them. A protest sign, a mural, a painting, graffiti, sculptural works, photographs, public works, etc.—they all fit under the protest art umbrella and create room for all kinds of artists to make their voices heard. 

For today’s care package, we bring you a variety of art exhibitions (both near and far) revolving around protest art in its many forms: 

The Whitney Museum’s An Incomplete History of Protest –Variety of Media 

You can view many of the artworks that were on display from a variety of topics by clicking on the Artworks tab. We also recommend checking out the Audio Guides tab for the exhibition, where some of the artists in the show discussed their work in the context of protest art.

Compound Gallery’s The Art of Protest –Photography (some images are graphic/depict violence) 

From the landing page “The Art of Protest features the works of Black and Latino photographers captured at Black Lives Matter protests across America in May and June 2020.” 

You can visit the gallery virtually, but please note it will not work on mobile.

Portrait Society Gallery’s Art + Protest –Variety of Media (including protest signs from protests in Milwaukee) 

This exhibition will be open to view in person until September 7th. See some of the work @portraitsocietygallery and sign up for their newsletter for the on-line exhibition component to come straight to you!

Interested in making your own protest art? As mentioned above, anyone can make protest art with whatever they like to use, but you can also check out the CREATE heading from Student Involvement’s #blacklivesmatter resource page for some additional guidance.