The former US first lady Michelle Obama—who addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago earlier this week—is breaking into the art world via a partnership between her organisation When We All Vote and the fundraising platform Art For Change.
The aim of the new joint initiative is to boost voter turnout in the US November presidential election, which will pit Democrat nominee Kamala Harris against the Republican candidate Donald Trump. According to a statement from Art for Change, it will see the organisation “donate five percent of the unframed purchase price of sales until 1 December, with a $10,000 minimum commitment, to support When We All Vote’s mission to increase voter participation in this crucial election year,” says a statement.
Participating artists include Aaron Johnson, whose Oh My Heart (2023) shows two figures blending together, and Caris Reid, whose text-based piece simply says “vote”. Rico Gatson’s work Shirley #3 (2023), meanwhile, depicts the eponymous first Black woman elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm.
Reid tells The Art Newspaper: “My work is very whimsical and dreamlike. I’m fascinated by the blurring of the physical and metaphysical. While I don’t typically use lettering in my work, I wanted to create a ‘vote’ painting that referenced historical works but also conveyed a sense of wonder, possibility, even hope.”
“The When We All Vote collection as a whole creates a narrative that we hope evokes various nuances of America,” Jeanne Masel, the founder of Art for Change, told The Guardian. “Art for Change connects socially conscious art collectors with in-demand contemporary artists and their work,” says the organisation’s website. When We All Vote, meanwhile, “is a leading national, non-partisan initiative on a mission to change the culture around voting and to increase participation in each and every election by helping to close the race and age gap,” says the organisation.
Separately, the illustrator Shepard Fairey has launched a print of Kamala Harris in the style of his celebrated 2008 work Hope, which depicts Barack Obama. The new piece is emblazoned with the word Forward.
Rico Gatson’s work Shirley #3 (2023) depicts the eponymous first Black woman elected to Congress (Shirley Chisholm)
Art by Shepard Fairey. Reference photo by Lawrence Jackson / Biden for President is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“I believe VP [Vice President] Kamala Harris and her VP pick Tim Walz are our best chance to move forward. They are our best chance to push back on encroaching fascism and threats to democracy, and our best chance for creating the world we all desire and deserve,” Fairey says in an online statement. He adds: “This art is a tool of grassroots activism for all to use non-commercially. I was not paid for it and will not receive any financial benefit from it.”
Harris is due to close the Democratic convention today (22 August) with a major speech accepting her nomination.