Here is a small selection of works by artists who use their art to explore social problems and the issues

around immigration and emigration.

IMMIGRATION – EMIGRATION: FORCED JOURNEYS

This series of works by contemporary artist Anni Holm address the issue of the processes followed by immigrants when obtaining visas – passport photos are recreated with thousands of finger-prints. This suggests the repetitive beaurocracy involved, versus the unique aspects of the immigrants’ personalities.

ANNI HOLM

Street artist Banksy is known for addressing a range of social issues in his work – what makes this so powerful is that his works exist in the ‘real world’ – not in the world of the art galleries and museums. Banksy uses the language of street art and grafitti to create gritty images and messages which often use puns and word-play to get his message across.

BANKSY

More works by Banksy – the image on the LHS has been painted onto the wall between Palestine and Israel.

Dominic McGill uses combinations of text, collage and image to create huge drawings which make reference to many social issues and problems – google his work to see more, including fantastic installations!

DOMINIC MCGILL

Works by Larry Richardson (top left), Juan Carlos Marcias (bottom left) and Roberto Rosique (right). The painting by Marcias, titled ‘Wet Dreams’ makes reference to the various ‘cleansing’ processes – both physical and mental - that immigrants have to go through in order to be admitted to the USA.

Josue Pellot combines the Palestinian flag with that of the USA. Yolanda Lopez makes reference to the famous propoganda poster ‘Your Country needs YOU’. Hans Hoffman’s painting Immigration Drama uses a technique inspired by Francis Picabia to suggest time passing and a range of events from past, present and future.

Kollowitz creates stark, harrowing images of refugees, the poor and disposessed in her work. Death, starvation and poverty overshadow the living at all times.

KATHE KOLLOWITZ

‘Immigration Papers’, above left, by Lorraine Riess, uses something of Joseph Cornell’s approach to mixed-media collages. “Newspapers and handmade papers in a composition of warm colors play the idea of migration, freedom and a grid of bureacracy.”

LORRAINE RIESS

Shaun Tan illustrates beautiful books with minimal text, managing to convey big issues and complex ideas in very subtle ways. ‘The Arrival’ is a book which examines what it means to be an immigrant, leaving your home and travelling to a new, unfamiliar and possibly hazardous place.

SHAUN TAN – ‘THE ARRIVAL’

Another image from ‘The Arrival’ – the creeping tentacles suggest an air of menace and fear within the country left behind; many immigrants are forced from their home countries by brutality, persecution and fear of attack.

Best known for the Obama ‘Hope’ poster, Fairey makes strongly graphic works covering a wide range of current issues; war and conflict, discrimination, racism, police brutality etc. He uses the visual language of propaganda posters to communicate very different messages.

SHEPARD FAIREY

More images from Shepard Fairey