ARTISTS RESPOND TO THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Of the many things that Senator John Lewis has been noted for besides his heroic and often dangerous struggle for racial equality, was his strategy of non-violent, civil disobedience that he poetically coined as "good trouble." The full passage of which his clarion call appears is in a 2018 tweet: “Do not get lost in a sea of ​​despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. "

As the 2020 Presidential Election approaches, it is now more than ever to engage in “good trouble” whether this be in the streets, the workplace, the classroom, or the exhibition space. Artists have a history of expressing variants of Lewis' sociopolitical resistance through their art when confronted by injustice. Some early instances include Ben Shahn's The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (1931-32) and Jacob Lawrence's Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954-56), and since then a slew of artists not only working singularly but also in collectives. And it is in this spirit that Good Trouble: Artists Respond to the 2020 Presidential Election dovetails on, as it is more than an exhibition but a mobilization towards the most important election in recent US history and attendant ramifications both within the US and abroad.