10 Artworks That Spoke Truth to Power in 2025
From public murals to museum walls, artists mobilized their practices to call out injustices, expose wrongdoing, and advocate for a better world.
Homes on fire as fossil fuels burn. Pro-Palestine protesters jailed. Migrants disappeared from the streets of the United States. Trans individuals persecuted and denied life-saving care. Indigenous people's rights under threat.
There was no shortage of injustices in 2025. Refusing to be desensitized by the perpetual scroll of tragic images and news headlines, artists and creative activists mobilized their mediums in pursuit of change, sometimes risking their own lives and livelihoods. Below are 10 works that spoke truth to power in 2025, a decidedly non-comprehensive list of murals, protest actions, museum exhibitions, and other artistic gestures to carry us with intention and courage into the new year.
Banksy’s Mural in Support of Palestine Protesters
On September 8, two days after the mass arrests of 900 people who were protesting in support of Palestinian activists in London, Banksy revealed a chilling new mural on the exterior of the city's Royal Courts of Justice building. The elusive street artist's characteristically stenciled image — which was quickly covered up by authorities — depicted a court judge beating a protester with his gavel. It was an uncompromising denunciation of the British government's ban on the activist group Palestine Action, which was designated a “terrorist” organization in July. Ironically, Banksy's image is all the more powerful because it was scrubbed from the wall, leaving a haunting silhouette that became a protest artwork in its own right.
An Aerial Photo of Migrants' Cry for Help
Photojournalist Paul Ratje, who covers immigration and border issues on the ground from the US-Mexico border, captured this rare aerial image of imprisoned migrants spelling out the letters “SOS” from the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas. The mostly Venezuelan men held at Bluebonnet, labeled "alien enemies" with little or no evidence by the Trump administration, feared they could be deported to the infamous maximum security prison in El Salvador, CECOT. Ratje said journalists were not given access to the detention facility and he had little face-to-face contact with anyone in the town, making his experience of taking the photograph “surreal.”
“Having this exchange with the detainees, albeit through the lens of my drone, was unexpected for me,” Ratje told Hyperallergic. “In my eyes, their decision to communicate with my drone was a clear indication of the urgency and anxiety they must have been feeling, under threat of being sent to CECOT with its brutal reputation.”
"Trans Forming Liberty" by Amy Sherald
One of the defining images of 2025 is without a doubt Amy Sherald's “Trans Forming Liberty,” her portrait of a pink-haired Black trans woman, modeled after drag performer and musician Arewà Basit, dressed as the titular symbol of freedom and hope. Though painted in 2024, the artwork took on new significance this year, when Sherald canceled her planned exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in July over fears that the piece would be censored amid Trump's crackdown on the Smithsonian Institution. “When governments police museums, they are not simply policing exhibitions,” Sherald wrote in MSNBC’s opinion blog. “They are policing imagination itself.”
Duane Linklater's Buffalo Sculptures
Omaskêko Ininiwak (Cree) artist Duane Linklater explored the symbiotic relationship between Native people and buffalo in his poignant exhibition 12 + 2 at Dia Chelsea, anchored by seven wire and papier-mâché sculptures of the animals that are at once majestic and tender. Unlike the millions of buffalo killed by White settlers, part of a genocidal campaign to deny Indigenous people literal and spiritual sustenance, Linklater's bison roam free. They are deliberately rendered in various wallowing poses, like rolling in the dirt, which buffalo tend to assume when they feel comfortable, safe, and happy. In creating such an environment, Linklater gestures toward a future where Native life is neither contained nor threatened.
A Climate Change Warning After LA Fires
Victims of the Los Angeles fires rallied outside the Chevron oil refinery in Northern California in March, protesting the role of fossil fuels in creating the hot and dry conditions that we now know contributed to the spread of the blazes. At the center of that rally and another in Pasadena was a painting of a still-standing chimney emitting a thick cloud of black smoke, created by Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio along with David Solnit and dozens of volunteers. A call for action — “Invest in Communities, Not Fossil Fuels,” written in both English and Spanish — encircles the image, which draws on the metaphorical power of the chimneys that survived the fires. Aparicio, who lost his home in Altadena in the Eaton Fire, told Hyperallergic's LA Correspondent Matt Stromberg that he is “always looking at symbols that can hold both sides of an emotion: resilience and trauma.”
The Drawing Protesters Refused to Forget
The drawing that President Trump reportedly gifted Jeffrey Epstein, part of a crude 50th birthday album for the convicted sex trafficker whose contents were made public earlier this year, spoke for itself. The sketch featured a cryptic imaginary conversation between the president and Epstein, typed within the outline of a woman’s body and signed “Trump” in place of her pubic hair. But a new version of the image quickly began circulating, one co-opted by concerned citizens demanding transparency and accountability. They replicated the now-infamous hourglass shape on protest placards and posters like the one above, captured by Hyperallergic co-founder and Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian at a “No Kings” protest in October. We resurface the damning visual amid the year-end release of a trove of new Epstein files, some containing serious allegations against Trump, and the promise of a million more to come.
17,000 Children's Shoes for Gaza on Pennsylvania Avenue
In a devastating visual of the massacres committed by Israel in Gaza, the New York City-based group People’s Forum lined up approximately 17,000 pairs of kids' shoes — based on the number of Palestinian children killed between October 2023 and April 2025 — on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. Hyperallergic Staff Writer Isa Farfan captured the seemingly endless rows of tiny sandals and colorful sneakers arranged along the historic thoroughfare, a classic route of official government parades and protest marches. Israeli violence continued in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreement in October, reportedly killing hundreds of Palestinians since then.
The Coming of the Lord by Fabián Cháirez
Mexican artist Fabián Cháirez began creating his exquisitely painted portraits of queer priests and nuns in suggestive postures several years ago, but the works became a flashpoint of debates over artistic freedom in 2025. La venida del Señor (The coming of the Lord), Cháirez's solo exhibition at the Academia de San Carlos Centro Historico, which is affiliated with Mexico's national university, was censored in February after protests by Christian and right-wing groups. Cháirez told Hyperallergic that he perceived a “double standard” in the suppression of his works: "I think there are other issues we should be protesting against, such as the church's abuse of power and sexual abuses within the church," he said.
An Anti-Authoritarian Show Censored by China
An exhibition of works by artists from Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur diaspora at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre was heavily censored under pressure from Chinese authorities in August. Texts were blacked out, videos were turned off, and the flags of East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet were removed from the installation “Earth is Heard” (2025) by trans Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron (Doc Tenzin), among other alterations. The organizers of Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity, including an artist from Myanmar who reportedly fled the country in fear of persecution, said they opted to leave the show up with the covered artworks “as a statement itself."
Nativities That Confront ICE’s Cruelty
From the West Coast to the Vatican, the tradition of using Nativity scenes to convey humanitarian solidarity with migrants, displaced people, and oppressed communities is not new. The practice continued this year with particularly unflinching displays criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its record of violent aggression. One such example, the Nativity scene at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, pictured above, came under attack by right-wing politicians for including a sign that read "ICE WAS HERE" in place of the Holy Family.
Honorable Mention: The Statue of Liberty
She made appearances on protest signs and subway graffiti; on a mural in France and in marches at home, where demonstrators donned her gown, crown, and iconic torch to condemn the US government's abuses of power. From Amy Sherald's aforementioned portrait to politicians' calls for the sculpture's repatriation, Lady Liberty's remixes and resurgences reveal the public's hunger for art and symbols that rally communities and inspire action across time.
