Artists For the American Way

Jeffrey Gibson

Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me, which made its U.S. debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025, he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. Gibson was selected for the Metropolitan Museum’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission, and his monumental bronze sculptures were on view through June 2026. His work is held in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist-in-residence at Bard College.

Vincent Valdez

Vincent Valdez blends large, representational paintings—the scale of which recall Western traditions of history painting as well as mural painting and cinema—with contemporary subject matter. He focuses on subjects that explore his observations and experience of life in the twenty-first century. The results are powerful images of American identity that confront injustice and inequity while imbuing his sub-jects with empathy and humanity. Valdez states, “My aim is to incite public remembrance and to impede distorted realities that I witness, like the social amnesia that surrounds us all.”

“I created this drawing to be used for a national poster campaign to encourage voting during the elections in November 2024. I intended it to function as a public service announcement, presenting viewers with a haunting message and reminder—the extinguished flame and the dark, uncertain day can only be reignited and reimagined by the will and the power of people,” said Vincent Valdez.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary street artist, graphic artist and social activist who emerged from the skateboarding scene and is now part of the Street Art movement. Fairey’s most recognizable work is Andre the Giant Has a Posse, Rock the Vote, Obey Giant, and the Barack Obama Hope poster, the iconic image made popular during the 2008 presidential election season. He was commissioned twice by Time Magazine to design the 2011 cover honoring "The Protester" as Person of the Year in the wake of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and other social movements around the world. He was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Deborah Kass

For nearly five decades, feminist artist Deborah Kass has used Pop Art techniques to explore the intersections between pop culture, art history, and the construction of self. Preceding the 2016 election, Kass declared her support for Hillary Clinton through a screen print, which utilizes her signature “appropriation” technique to mimic Andy Warhol’s 1972 “Vote McGovern” print.

Beverly McIver

Beverly McIver is widely acknowledged as a significant presence in contemporary American art and has charted a new direction as an artist. She has accumulated more awards and honors than many artists receive in a lifetime, which she pays forward by teaching younger generations about the power of art and the hard work it takes to make it a career. McIver is Professor of the Practice in Studio Arts at Duke University, and prior to this appointment, she taught at Arizona State University for 12 years. 

McIver was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, as one of three daughters—including her sister, Renee, who has developmental disabilities—of a single mother who worked multiple domestic jobs to make ends meet. She eventually received a BA in Painting and Drawing from North Carolina Central University and a MFA in Painting and Drawing from Pennsylvania State University.  Her career as a painter are reminders to herself and her audience of the journey she endured in order to understand the many aspects that collectively shape her identity. The images are also powerful statements about larger issues that affect and challenge everyone. 

Tracie Ching

Tracie Ching is an artist and illustrator working in Washington, DC. Largely self-taught, she became known for her highly graphic cross-hatching style. Ching made her home in pop-culture creating alternative movie posters for cult classics and showing in galleries such as Spoke Art in San Francisco. She has since grown her portfolio to include commercial art for Hasbro and Penguin Randomhouse, covers for TIME and Newsweek and key art for Disney, Netflix, and Marvel Studios.

Ching’s work has been shown in the Getty Museum and Design Museum in London and in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. She is founder and principal mentor of the biennial We Create Mentorship & Grant program.

Michael Dixon

Michael Dixon is an oil painter born in San Diego, California. He received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in painting and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University in painting and drawing. Dixon is currently a Full Professor of Art at Albion College. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Emergency Grant, Puffin Foundation Grant, Blanchard Fellowship, and Phi Beta Kappa Scholar of the Year Award.

His imagery explores the personal, societal, and aesthetic struggles of belonging to both "white" and "black" racial and cultural identities, yet simultaneously belonging fully to neither. The works of artists such as Robert Colescott, Beverly McIver, Michael Ray Charles, Glenn Ligon, and Kerry James Marshall have informed his work.

Ellena Dien

Ellena Dien (b1992, San Diego CA) is a Hungarian American emerging artist, studying at Sotheby's Institute of Art. She is currently creating in Los Angeles. 

Voter Readiness Guide

Connecting art and action

As art moves us to see ourselves as part of a larger story, it inspires us to want to make a difference in our society, participate in our governance, and exercise our crucial right and responsibility to vote. 

To help make the most of your voting experience, we’ve created our Voter Readiness Guide. Here you’ll find resources on registering to vote, checking to ensure your registration is active, and finding out what’s on your ballot. Use these resources and make your plan to vote!