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Art Meets Activism: Artists Rally for Kamala Harris’ 2024 Campaign

Richie Holland
6 min readOct 17, 2024

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“Artists for Kamala” online auction brought together contemporary works to support political discourse and change, here are a few that stood out to me.

Joel Mesler, Hope 2024 Artsy

The Artists for Kamala: Benefit Auction featured over 165 visual artists who banded together in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, with notable names such as Carrie Mae Weems, Judy Chicago, and Jeff Koons contributing their work.

In my youthful days as a student of Fine Art at University, I began to see art as more than just aesthetics or personal expression — it can be a language that communicates cultural ideas, emotions, and often drives social and political viewpoints. This auction wasn’t just about raising funds for a political campaign; it fosters the idea that art and culture have a role to play in a “healthy democracy”. The connection between art and activism has a rich legacy especially in the modern art movements of the 20th Century. Major artists have long used their public platforms to comment on the social and political issues of their times, and this event is a reminder of that ongoing purpose.

Shepard Fairey, Radical Peace Chaos, Version 1 2023 (Artsy)

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Richie Holland
Richie Holland

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