Art, Fashion, and Activism with Youth Art Exchange
July 30 @ 11:00 AM PDT
Inspired by The Obama Portraits Tour, we invite you to a daylong celebration of art, fashion, and activism with a pop-up art exhibition, hands-on artmaking, fashion show, and live music sets showcasing the creativity of Youth Art Exchange (YAX) students — DJs, designers, creatives — and faculty artists. Plus, hear from Bay Area youth activists at the forefront of today’s social justice movement.
From the moment of their unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in February 2018, the official portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama became iconic. The artists behind the portraits, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, have throughout their careers addressed the lack of Black representation in Western art history, using portraiture to explore complex issues of identity. Wiley and Sherald are the first African Americans to be commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery to create official portraits of a president or first lady. The Obama Portraits Tour is a nationwide tour expected to reach millions who might not otherwise have an opportunity to view these remarkable paintings.
