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social commentary
A working library of design, type, and visual culture.
74051 references · 296 visual
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Poster
2020The Grapes of Wrath (1940 poster)
Poster
2020Blackboard Jungle (1955 poster)
Poster
2018"Save me from my friends!" - Dalrymple. LCCN2012647469
Project
2014The Design Displacement Group offers an alternative Christmas message
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2012opusBOU: El Empleo
Motion
2023Forget ‘quiet quitting’, Elizabeth Lum’s animation proves hustle culture to be a sham
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2015In these photographers' Black Tropicana, the drinks are definitely not free
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2019Evie O’Connor on her intimate portraits that explore class and politics
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2014Gregg Segal's powerful portraits of households surrounded by a week's worth of their garbage
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2015Utopia-focussed design work from studio Public School
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2018The other side: AGI Open Mexico explores what it means “to live on opposite sides of an imaginary wall”
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2021Cassian Gray celebrates the postal service’s ability to maintain “our delicate fabric of society”
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2012Surreal, pastel social commentaries from illustrator Mark Whalen
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2017A world of pain: Sixteen Journal's latest issue
Motion
2013Film: Will Robson-Scott's new work digs into the violence gripping Chicago
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2018Over several years, Philipp Gallon charts the social changes in the US through random encounters
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2018Tish Murtha's Elswick Kids portrays "the joy and freedom of childhood"
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2023Jeroen van den Bogaert’s tapestries show just how close the classical and contemporary are
Publication
2025Futuristic, detached and intensely human: Ard Su’s editorial illustrations are simple yet unique
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2016Johnathon Kelso’s thought-provoking exploration of the southern states of America and Neo-Confederacy
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2025Photographer Alex Bex unravels the mythmaking behind the Western cowboy
Motion
2020If boobs could speak, what would they say? Breast Friends is a hysterical animation on Western beauty standards
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2015Duane Hanson’s hyperreal sculptures question how we address the world
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2017James Bannister breaks down Las Vegas’ facade of success and glamour in What Makes Grass Grow In the Desert
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2012Irreverent studio Snask teach us all how to make enemies and gain fans
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2019Larry Achiampong and David Blandy use video games to explore issues around race and class
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2012David Chancellor's Hunters offers an unsettling look at African blood sports
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2019Viktor Hübner photographs American anxieties amongst a shifting political environment
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2010Michael Haneke / The White Ribbon
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2016“Most of the photographs I take are bad”: Martin Parr brings the good stuff to a stunning new retrospective
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2013Artist Julie Mehretu explores how cities serve as backdrops for change
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2018Mischa Appel's series This is Where You End investigates the "increasing polarisation of society"
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2018Robert Darch's series The Moor argues that we are already living in dystopia
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2018Sophie Harris-Taylor breaks down the stigmas of skin issues with photo series Epidermis
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2013A stark study of life in Britain's legal black hole by Edmund Clark
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2017Political posters and Youtube Sans: a look back at May 2017
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2018Rae-Yen’s site-specific work offers an alternative perspective on our social reality
Motion
2022“Finding humour in something painful allows me to digest it”: Inari Sirola’s new film Eating in the Dark uses absurdity to tackle big topics
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2014Sam Bush tells us what it's like to photograph riots
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2012There Must Be More To Life provocatively explores fading glamour in powerful, poignant photographs (maybe NSFW)
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2015Bright, nicely deadpan narratives from illustrator Jenn Liv
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2008Dirty Beach
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2017Tria Giovan’s thoughtful portrait of Cuba in the 1990s
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2018Clifford Prince King looks to “express truth and realness” in his portraits of male black youth
Publication
2012We've got nothing but love for Mr Bingo's brilliant new book of Hate Mail
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2014Photography: Tastes and stereotypes of Essex through the lens of Lucy Sparks
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2012Check out this "Pretty Ugly" design work from Two Points Studio
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2018Sharif Hamza on how he photographed young America's gun culture
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2022In his paintings, Ikeorah Chisom Chi-Fada seeks to respect and “deify” his fellow Nigerians
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2019Nettle Grellier's tender paintings show how we can occupy space as equals
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2019Aimé Mpane's paintings confront the legacy of colonialism in Congo
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2021Ellie Bainbridge looks to 1970s Sunday league football culture as inspiration for her retro work
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2016Sophie Littman captures the underlying awkwardness of a village orchestra
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2020“I like to slap my audience or shock them”: Iranian documentary photographer Shayan Sajadian
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2017Max Guther is back with more hyper real illustrations visualising social trends
Project
2013Chilling insights into plastic surgery clinics and the instruments of transformation
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2012Mikell Fine Iles gorgeous graphic look at the parks he visited in 2011 has an important social underpinning
Publication
2015One of the finest books we've seen, Craig Oldham's homage to the miners' strike
Motion
2018Dinner For Few is an allegorical animation depicting our society that benefits a select few
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2011Oliviero Toscani
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2020Painter Lily Kemp examines the sexualisation of women’s bodies in her graphic works
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2017Other Forms explores publishing and print as increasingly militant mediums
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2013Jeremy Deller's British Pavilion in Venice challenges and provokes our self-image
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2015Matteo Berton's considered illustrations of a Nazi raid on a Jewish community
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2019In her latest series, Lauren Harris captures moments of violence and tenderness in the boxing ring
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2018Latin American artist Maria Berrio's collages explore the innate power of women
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2014Photography: Jackie Nickerson's photos of workers' environments
Poster
2017Nathaniel Russell adapts his woodcut technique to create positive propaganda posters
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2018Anonymous illustrators Germes Gang “perceive everything related to contemporary life traumatic"
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2012Powerful, evocative and unflinching. We take a look Stuart Griffiths' photography
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2012Going for gold: Aleksandra Mir investigates our relationship with the trophy
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2021Evie O’Connor shows the emptiness of affluence in her latest critique of class structures
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2012Stuart Smith: All About Eve
Motion
2021Toberg’s new animated film Pile explores the “acute dystopia” the world has drifted into in recent years
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2017Cleon Peterson's works continue to investigate the evil side of humanity
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2012Ben Pawle single-handedly solves the mystery of unwrapping a condom
Poster
2017"The White Man's Burden" Judge 1899
Poster
2013Poster - No More Ladies 04
Poster
2026Tadeusz Trepkowski Po walce praca
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2019Extinction Rebellion on the creative industries: “What is the cultural sector even for?”
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2012Aude Debout and Caroline Lollo show us how the greedy see the world
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2019Photographer David Denil explores Ukraine's mindset after the 2014 revolution
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2009This is Why You're Fat
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2017Donald Sanger illustrates a grotesque and humorous version of humanity
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2018João Sobral has a soft spot for depicting “losers or weirdos who’ve been mistreated by the system”
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2018"The truth can be controversial": illustrator Edel Rodriguez on going viral
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2013Illustration: Peter Rhodes' illustrations form a lovely social narrative
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2012Yasmin Bawa: He Didn't Care…
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2013Art: Pedro Reyes creates working musical instruments from decommissioned arms
Poster
2026Tadeusz Trepkowski Nie rzucaj ognia
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2017Hiding in Plain Sight: photojournalist Ivar Wigan on the importance of fitting in
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2010Taryn Simon
Poster
1980World solidarity with Cuba — Cuban poster
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2019Illustrator Amber Vittoria challenges stereotypes in her elaborately posed drawings
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2018Boris Camaca's eerie, otherworldly photographs are rooted in social criticism
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2022Olivia Twist unpacks the colourful layers to her community-driven illustration practice
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2015Annie Collinge dresses up New York strangers like old dolls
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2020What would Wikipedia look like if it acknowledged its gender and racial biases? Graphic designer Sharon Park explores
Print
1971Black Words That Say: Don't Cry, Scream.
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2022Yvette Mayorga’s sugary sweet cake decorations reveal a dark critique of surveillance and consumerism
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2022“A kind of theatre”: Photographer Diego Saldiva on the decline of televised wrestling and the rise of Youtube street duels
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2020Jamie Lee Curtis Taete on how and why he ventured among LA’s quarantine protests
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2012Blessed be those captured by the lens of Boo George!
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2017Lernert and Sander name and shame the adverts copying their work, then forgive them
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2018Nick Drnaso's graphic novel is a timely critique of fake news and social media frenzies
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2018Portrait of a psyche in flux: photographer Shane Rocheleau on white American masculinity
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2012We love Superflex's hand-painted, and powerful "To Let" signs for the Biennial
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2012Artist Sebastian Errazuriz turns Occupy's visceral anger into a line of chairs
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2016Ian Davis’ picturesque paintings of bureaucratic dystopia
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2018India Sleem’s Small Town Country Boy is a rich portrait of race, class and her dad
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2018Animator Alice Bloomfield explores sex, wealth, and validation
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2013David Emery's portraits of brothels are powerfully poignant in their haunting stillness
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2016Ewen Spencer on new commission, Kick over the statues
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2011Real Impact Productions: Under Offer
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2015Nice and Serious swings cats in protest at London housing prices
Garment
2012New Ian Stevenson show skewers modern society in stereotypically funny fashion
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2019Photographer Eva Verbeeck looks at the place of young women in modern American society
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2021Eliza Hatch’s latest series focuses on the overlooked harassment routinely faced by key workers
Poster
The Apotheosis of War — Russian painting
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2019Yolanda Y. Liou confronts Asian beauty standards in a new photography series
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2022The Male Gaze in 3D: Why are there so many naked, bald women?
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2025Jacob Lazarus turns surveillance footage from the West Bank into an act of resistance
Poster
2022“No shits given”: Luke John Matthew Arnold’s cut-throat posters are rooted in love and acceptance
Motion
2020Capturing moments and creating narratives, Don Brodie’s documentary works are here to spark conversation
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2013Photography: Alexander Coggin's friends are better looking than yours
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2009Print Liberation Halloween
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2012Damien Poulain talks us through his powerful, ubiquitous Vaccines artwork
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2015Kerry James Marshall's energetic paintings combine rawness and rigour
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2016Jessica Lehrman's photographic document of social revolution, Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street
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2018Travis Alabanza’s radical performance practice is disrupting politeness and gratitude
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2020Renowned photographer Bruce Davidson revisits the humour, stoicism and complexities of 1960s Britain
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2016Anja Wicki's sarcastically sweet comic illustrations
Poster
2019Symbols of freedom "and the struggle for it": a look at the Polish School of Posters
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2012Ioana Cîrlig and Marin Raica get under the skin of post-communist Romania
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2007Ben Freeman
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2022“The spectacular in the ordinary”: photographer Michelle Sank shines a light on everyday encounters
Garment
2018Take Care i.l.y asks artists, photographers, authors, journalists and sociologists to discuss fashion
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2019“Social observation” is central to Bill Daggs’ painted portraits
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2018Natalia Poniatowska employs photography to convey the emotions, truths and challenges of modern reality
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2012Emiliano Ponzi's dark illustrated glimpse into the lives of others
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2019Kate Isobel Scott makes us think twice about staring at your phone on the train
Poster
2015Pentagram designer uses his own blood to create poster marking Hiroshima Nagasaki
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2011Santiago Sierra: No, Global Tour
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2019Rebecca Harper's paintings are a “reflection of the time we are living in”
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2016Photographer Harley Weir documents the domestic spaces of Calais' migrant camps
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2013Art: Excellent project makes portraits of women from censored Iranian packaging
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2017Hetty Douglas and Alfie Kungu’s Good Luck exhibition is their “strongest” show to date
Motion
2018Fuck boys beware: this animation tells a cautionary tale
Publication
2025It’s a (wo)man’s game: Janet Delavan’s Feminine American Pastime deconstructs gender-based activities
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2011Parra & Mr.Boonstra: Put Your Gun Away
Poster
2018Tsar, priest and kulak
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2011What's On: Despite Intentions
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2017Anna Beeke explores the contradictions of life aboard a cruise ship
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2020Soufiane Ababri returns with more politically charged and explicit drawings
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2020Stephen Burridge’s series Homegrown focuses on “the margins of our capital”
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2011Gil Scott-Heron
Poster
2018Two generations (Kalikin)
Poster
2018If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - 1930s poster
Poster
2026Tadeusz Trepkowski Ręka skaleczona nie może pracować
Poster
1963American imperialism must be driven from Vietnam! — Chinese poster
Print
1968Cities Burning
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2007Make Love Not War
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2019Jamie Earle Murray's series Folly tells the experience ex-prisoners reintegrating into society
Identity
2019Challenging stereotypes, Lee-Ann Olwage turns her lens to gender and identity in South Africa
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2013Photographer Stuart Leech explores the philanthropic principle in the art world
Designer
Shigeo Fukuda
Project
2017Pentagram designs Francesca Gavin’s Watch This Space, dissecting the screens impact on society
Publication
2018Magazine Us of America captures the truth behind the 'land of the free'
Print
1990Enjoy AZT
Poster
1912All workers must protest the horrors of modern war – Hungarian poster
Project
2020In her ongoing series, Anna Grevenitis depicts the everyday life of her child living with Down syndrome
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2012Photographer Ben Roberts explores the secret spaces of London's Occupy movement
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2013Ji Yeo's stirring project photographs the plastic surgery obsession in Korea
Garment
1800The Teatotal Destruction of Sir John Barleycorn
![Zimbabwe. One Enemy: Imperialism [verso]](/api/local-img?p=canon%2Fvam%2Fzimbabwe-one-enemy-imperialism-verso-vam-o117445.jpg)
Photograph
1977Zimbabwe. One Enemy: Imperialism [verso]
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2010The Black Belles - What Can I Do?
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2015Grace Wilson reacts to contemporary cultural issues through her comics
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2016Ace new Laura Callaghan work calls BS on the idea that we can be "whatever we want to be"
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2014Miscellaneous: This blog flags up the best and worst places to cry in New York
Poster
2018Muuropschriften in verband met dood kraker in cel Amsterdam posters Van Thijn sc, Bestanddeelnr 933-4808
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2013Opinion: Is it time to draw a line under artists producing so-called ruin porn?
Poster
1926Poison — American anti-Mussolini cartoon
Publication
2014Marinus Schepen's oddly appealing book about capital punishment
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2020“Humour has the ability to make the unthinkable easier to process”: meet tapestry artist Kayla Mattes
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2020Under / Over: Is toilet paper actually one of design’s most worrying environmental problems?
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2019To produce Ugly, Melissa Kitty Jarram and Anna Ginsburg needed a lot of perseverance
Motion
2013Film: Could these be the coolest kids in the world? Check out Unlocking the truth
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2018Harley Weir and Jamie Reid explore the functions of the female body for Baron
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2022From Pentagram to political slogans: Designer Harriet Richardson on her witty and disruptive practice
Poster
2021Снял повязку с глаз, а на повязке „Спас“
Poster
2021Vladimir Lebedev (British Library - Public Domain) Violence - A-Worker-Sweeping-the-Criminals
Poster
2021Mao-era Propaganda Poster Featuring Chinese Typist
Poster
2017Marriage in Transit poster
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2021How comedy can challenge our beliefs by holding a mirror up to society
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2017Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth is an epic document of the lives of the super-rich
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2020Move over Katy Perry, it’s all about the burkinis on top in Maria Mahfooz’s Pakistani Gurls
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2016Work hard, be nice to people and have rich parents: addressing privilege in the creative industry
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2019Max Miechowski on exploring community and urban spaces through portraiture
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2012Grayson Perry weaves a titillating and tantalising tale of taste in new show
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2025Jordan Sullivan searches for beauty in the circus of America
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2012Happiness IS contagious so smile with me at THINGS!
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2015What’s going on with all these half-naked people? Printed Pages is back in town!
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2012A huge broken plate is thought-provoking addition to Belgian town
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2013Photography: Arvida Byström's lens captures boys doing "girl's stuff" for Vice
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2019Protests, cute culture and the UK’s fruit market: Suzy Chan on her innovative design practice
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2021Zoe Lowdermilk-Oppenheim’s moving project documents young Chinese women adopted into British families
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2019Ikko Narahara’s photographs of monks and inmates relaunch in a new edition
Motion
2018Yan Dan Wong's animations approach tricky topics with sensitivity and thoughtfulness
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2011The Burning House
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2019John Angerson's photographic journey sheds light on modern England and its social issues
Motion
2016Billy Lumby recreates King Lear in a care home in gripping short film for British Council
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2019As Migrant Journal comes to an end, it will continue to remind us: migration is integral to our existence
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2012Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset: Powerless Structures, Fig. 101
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2020“I’m painting women into a space of fairness, equity and freedom”: Introducing the work of Sungi Mlengeya
Poster
2009Find the range of your patriotism2
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2013Photography: Hilarious and sometimes hard-hitting work here from Jen Osborne
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2012Terrific blog celebrates the supreme awkwardness of the Missed High Five
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2021Artist Hannah Ward is tackling censorship with her Hama bead nudes
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2018“I’ve tried to prove that being a woman doesn’t mean weakness”: Fatemeh Behboudi on photographing Iran
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2017Photographer Marco Argüello questions the “visual vomit” of influencer culture in his series Chroma
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2020In response to the crisis, seven creatives draw rainbows to signify “this storm will pass”
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2019Zhong Lin's new series explores bullying and unity through a shoot with big hair
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2019Romain Roucoules artistically comments on the environment, social media and politics – with food
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2015Capturing the selfie stick epidemic is photographer Alexander Short
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2020How can photography unveil invisible systems of power in society? Kirsten Bosma explores
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2018Buck Ellison’s staged images examine whiteness and inequality in America
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2022Suzy Chan’s kitsch and sparkly project explores the children who grow up in China’s factories
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2018Karen Lederer's paintings reference everything from pets to politics
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2015Marc Kremers slams rampant conformism in the design world
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2017Richard Turley and Rod Stanley discuss protest broadsheet, Good Trouble
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2017Artist Joseph Sweeney clutches at a quickly fading quintessential Britain
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2013Art: Giant tape paintings of disgraced billionaires from Kuhl and Leyton
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2016Review of the Year 2016: photographer Martin Parr
Poster
2026The Chain Gang
Poster
2012Scum of earth poster 01
Project
2018Butts, bums and booty: Melani de Luca explores the omnipresence of bums in the media (NSFW)
Poster
2021Communist Party of Germany poster from the plebiscite on indemnity of the German princes in 1926
Poster
2026Tadeusz Trepkowski Dusze czarnych
Poster
2014The Drunkard poster
Poster
2015Designer Pol Pintó questions capitalism in his series of striking typographic posters
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2021Reinventing the masculine discourse with photographer William Lakin
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2019Amanda Baldwin translates everyday objects into fine art reflections of society
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2016Social housing on the brink of demolition, as painted by visual artist Michael Cox
Motion
2026Leo Flügler’s whispery graphite comic tells the story of a female boxer struggling against sexism
Poster
1923Affiche voor noodlijdende kunstenaars en musici
Project
2016Casper Balslev shows ballerinas wielding AK-47s in his ad for the Royal Danish Theatre
Project
2022Sabb Adams’ tender portrait series celebrates Black fatherhood
Project
2020Tristan Bejawn sensitively explores the inaccurately conflated relationship between youth violence and UK drill
Project
2023Amrit Randhawa on using graphic design for social causes and commentary
Poster
2011Rivera Mural Palacio Nacional Mexico from Conquer to Present Detail Canon
Poster
2020Antireligious poster-21.8x17.8-paper-linography
Identity
2023Logo-HateAid
Poster
2009Bolchevisme vs fascisme (propaganda poster)
Poster
2013Études prises dans le bas peuple ou les Cris de Paris - L’Afficheur
Poster
2026Poster - A Little Brother of the Rich (1919)
Poster
2023Uncle Sam Crucifixion circular
Poster
2024BKA poster - Stephan Balliet, massacre in Halle
Poster
2006Jim Crow
Poster
2016Co mi zrobisz jak mnie zlapiesz – poster (Polish film, 1978)
Poster
20211920. Попы помогают капиталу и мешают рабочему. Прочь с дороги!
Poster
2020I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932 poster)
Project
2019Stefanie Gutheil uses oil paintings to explore the masks we wear to fit in
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2017Design, Revolt, Rainbow: the pioneering work of graphic designer Willy Fleckhaus
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2019Louisa Stickelbruck on the ever-thorny subject of representation in photography
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2012Marion Lefebvre: Nous Autres
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2014Marc Shoul photographs Johannesburg domestics walking their employers' dogs
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2019JA Mortram’s Small Town Inertia is a deeply human portrait of the cost of austerity
Garment
2018Toxic masculinity, sexuality, gender and racial inequality: inside the portfolio of fashion photographer Max Hirschberger
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2023Whimsical and organic, David Horgan’s paintings are based on overheard conversations
Project
2013Photography: Mitch Payne explores sterilisation through new in-camera series
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2014Eight Inc. produce a plug-in that removes the word cancer from the internet
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2012Canary Warf Screen: Karen Mirza & Brad Butler
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2012Photographer Gustavo Lacerda puts albinos centre stage in his stunning project
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2018Photographer Josh Adam Jones challenges western preconceptions of the Middle East in XO
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2018Rhea Dillon explores black existence and politics in her art as a “means of bringing about change”
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2012Studio Audience – Series Two, Episode Two with Full Secs, hate mail and art crimes
Motion
2017“Where’s my community?”: Skin Deep and POC on the need for diversity in the film industry
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2016Jargon is linguistic cocaine: don’t do it
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2019Bail bonds and trade shows: Steph Foster explores the US prison-industrial complex
Project
2011René Castillo: Hasta Los Huesos
Motion
2015Mr Bingo launches new Hate Mail project with a magnificent rap video
Project
2023How Suzy Chan weaves social commentary into her maximalist graphic design
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2010Jacob Holdt
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2021Ramona Jingru Wang asks: “Does the appearance of Asian bodies in an image make it inherently political?”
Project
2022Rex Southwick’s paintings reveal the “invisible workforce” that build our most desirable homes
Motion
2021Dakarai Akil’s Afrofuturist collages stem from always “having a thing” for monster and sci-fi films
Project
2019“Drunkenness and debauchery!”: Peter Dench captures events of English gentility
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2023Serene and fluid, Gleeson Paulino’s photo series gives baptism a new meaning
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2018A chat with the Orwellian mastermind in charge of the UK town known as Scarfolk
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2023“A legendary woman warrior”: Augustina Wang on healing through art
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2017Designer Ted Hyunak Yoon creates a visual analysis of dictators’ statues in history
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2018Seth Bogart uses ceramics to recreate a brilliant but dysfunctional sex shop
Project
2017Alex Paulus’ humorous paintings reflect failure, denial and perseverance
Publication
2021OK Mag questions what’s next after a year of chaos and upheaval?
Photograph
1936¿Que Fais-Tu Pour Empêcher Cela?
Project
2020