Whitney Museum Screens Taken Over With Gaza Protest Messages
Jonathan Allen’s guerrilla installations superimposed anti-genocide messages onto advertising displays outside the museum.
Messages condemning Israel's violence in Gaza appeared over the advertising screens outside the Whitney Museum of American Art last week in an action by New York City-based artist Jonathan Allen.
Around 10:30pm on July 2, Allen painted over two screens outside of the Manhattan museum with urgent dispatches in support of Palestine. The temporary installations, created with paint and plastic atop moving digital screens, are the 438th and 439th installments of his series Interruptions (2017–present). Many of his previous interventions have been placed over New York City subway advertisement displays to address a range of socialcauses, including abortion rights, racial justice, and immigration issues.
Allen overlaid one screen with a paraphrased allegation contained in a June 2026 United Nations report: "The Israeli forces have deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children." The report found that the Israeli government's violent actions have irrevocably "destroy[ed] the sanctity of childhood, including family ties, identity, innocence, safety and future."
The second manipulated screen bore an excerpt from a conversation that took place between activists and authors Angela Davis and Ta-Nehisi Coates at the University of Michigan in 2025.
"If you can't draw the line at genocide, you probably can't draw the line at democracy," the 439th interruption reads, quoting a remark Coates made regarding the Democratic Party's failure to consider Gaza during Kamala Harris's failed 2024 presidential campaign.
This year's Whitney Biennial has garnered criticism for being "faint-hearted" amid a politically contentious moment in United States history — one that has also taken aim at the country's cultural institutions. Last year, the institution suspended its Independent Study Program (ISP) after the museum canceled a performance exploring Palestinian mourning.
Allen's installation attracted attention from the right-wing doxxing X account Stop Antisemitism, which accused the artist of "villify[ing] Jews," a claim he denies.
Ashley Reece, the Whitney's director of communications, told Hyperallergic in a statement that the museum removed the installations in a "timely manner" after learning about "an incident of vandalism on museum property" on July 3.
"The Museum maintains a zero-tolerance policy for vandalism, harassment, discrimination, or bias of any kind,” Reece continued.
In an email to Hyperallergic, Allen said the purpose of this month's Whitney installation was to "focus attention on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza."
"Contextualizing this message within ... the corporate art complex is part of the point: To break through the niceties and apolitical nature of many contemporary art settings," Allen said.
"Intervening in public settings is integral to the project: I want these interventions seen by anyone passing by," Allen continued.
