Working in an art museum, I’m often asked who my favorite artist is. As a self-proclaimed Warhol aficionado, I often instinctively answer, obviously Andy – and with good reason! For half a century, Warhol’s work has offered a fascinating social commentary, pulling from a well of found imagery from the media and pop culture.

While he’s known for his repetitious soup cans and iconic Marilyns, his oeuvre has long elicited thought, discussion, and even change regarding then “taboo” topics like gender equality, human rights, the civil rights movement, and the evils of consumerism. Many associate Warhol with bright canvases of movie stars and Campbell’s soup but, there is a whole area of his work that dealt with the darker aspects of American culture – death, disasters, crime, and violence. Works like Birmingham Race Riot (1964) and Thirteen Most Wanted Men (1964), brought to the forefront parts of American society often overlooked. In fact, the Thirteen Most Wanted Men series, deemed too risqué, was censored shortly after it appeared on the façade of the New York State Pavilion. Through explorations and studies of newspaper clippings dealing with these more deviant themes in culture, Warhol was able to bring about discussion and change. He paved the way for the Pop Movement and the artists that followed, showing that through honest inquiry in the form of visual art, we can begin to foster the kinds of conversations that may bring about social change for the betterment of the world community.

Like Warhol, internationally known contemporary artists Banksy and Ai Weiwei use their art as a vehicle for asking these same kinds of questions that promote social change – drawing attention to the not so beautiful realities of society like injustice, censorship, and the inequalities stemming from capitalist culture. These two widely-known artists are just a small percentage of artistic activists currently packaging their ideas in the beautiful and digestible format of visual art. Here in Chicago, artists Theaster Gates and Dan Peterman are also creating bodies of work that promote healthy conversation around social change, with hopes of revitalizing the communities in which they live.

Chicago artist, Dan Peterman is one of my favorite contemporary artists working locally in Chicago. If you’ve ever sat upon the 100-foot-long Running Table (2009) in Millennium Park or cut a rug on the Summer Dance dance floor, you’ve interacted with his work.  Running Table and the dance floor in Grant Park are beautiful useful objects – and they are constructed entirely of recycled plastic. Peterman’s art, though quite different from Warhol, Bansky, and Ai Weiwei, is still at the core of the idea that asking questions through art can be a means of promoting social change. Much of his work deals with answering the pressing question of our current environmental crises, finding creative, utilitarian, and beautiful solutions to the basic problem of properly disposing of non-biodegradable waste, especially plastic. To quote his artist’s bio, “Peterman explores networks of recycled, or discarded materials to produce starkly minimal works that function interchangeably as stockpiles, sculpture, functional objects, and critiques of environmental waste and neglect.”  He has found ways of artfully incorporating discarded materials and reworking them into new and useful objects that enrich and enhance our lives, while also getting us to think more consciously about the earth we live on. In addition to his work as an artist, Peterman is a founder and current board member of the Experimental Station, a Chicago-based incubator of small-scale enterprise and cultural projects.