From Tehran to Ferguson: Social Justice in Contemporary Art - A Conversation Begins
Titus Kaphar Jerome II , 2014 Oil, gold leaf and tar on wood panel 7 × 10 ½ in. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York ©Titus Kaphar As protests against police brutality continue across the United States in the wake of the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, contemporary artists have joined the debate in artworks of extraordinary power and grace. From the Occupy Movement, to LGBT rights , to Black Lives Matter , to the issues surrounding “Je suis Charlie” , contemporary art, often of a representational bent, helps shed light on the complex nature of our times. Feroze Alam and Ravinder Padam Ferguson As a contemporary artist, I find it necessary to engage in the issue of social justice in my own artwork, and have found myself part of a disparate but powerful artistic community of painters and sculptors from Feroze Alam and Ravinder Padam in London, to Titus Kaphar, Kehinde Wiley and Joy Gar...