Stories of Immigrants Through Artwork
The We Are Home Campaign, The Immigration Hub, Emerson Collective, and Amplifier have teamed up to help elevate the voices and stories of immigrants from across the United States through artwork. Thanks to the talent and work of immigrant artists from across the country, we are happy to invite you to elevate unique artwork.
Check out the digital versions below and help amplify this beautiful art.
Featured: Alex Albadree
Alex Albadree is an immigrant who divides his time between DC and Istanbul where he creates art for social justice. The pieces Alex creates aim to engage with current and historical events to raise critical consciousness and call individuals to take action for social transformation. Alex applies an intersectional approach to the issues he amplifies, highlighting the ways that oppressive systems rooted in white supremacy and capitalism degrade our empathy, dignity and environment. Through beautifully crafted digital illustrations, Alex invites us to take a hard, honest look at our world and at ourselves. And then to imagine a better world. And, most importantly, to fight for it.
Celeste Byers is a California based artist specializing in large-scale murals. Since graduating with a BFA in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in 2012, she has worked as a freelance illustrator and muralist around the world and throughout the United States. She has painted over 70 murals in the United States, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia. Her work is largely inspired by the natural world and the mystical nature hidden in everyday life. She hopes to remind others of the magic and beauty of our universe.
Jess X. Snow (b. 1992) is a non-binary film director, artist, pushcart-nominated poet, children’s book author and community arts educator who creates speculative, queer asian immigrant stories that transcend borders, binaries and time. From Calgary, Canada, by the way of Jiangxi, China, they currently live on the unceded lands of the Lenni Lenape / Brooklyn, NY. Through narrative film, large-scale murals, virtual and augmented reality, and community art education, they are working toward a future where migrant and BIPOC folks may witness themselves heroic on the big screen and city walls & discover in their own bodies; a sanctuary for healing and collective liberation.
Raychelle Duazo (Ray-shell Dwah-so, she / her) is a queer femme Filipina-American illustrator and tattoo artist based in Seattle. She aims to combine dreamy aesthetics, vibrant colors, and cultural significance to both her tattoo & illustrative work. Her focus, as an artist includes, but is not limited to: queer identity, language, floral symbolism, composition, pops of color, color contrast, love, visibility, transformative grief, diaspora, and cultural context.
Edith is a recent graduate from California State University, Northridge, where she majored in graphic design. She has lived in Southern California for 20 years; since she emigrated, at the age of three, from Copandaro, Michoacan, Mexico, where she was born.
Kate DeCiccio is an Oakland based artist, educator & creative strategist. Her work centers portraiture for counter narrative, community storytelling & cultural strategy on behalf of abolition and collective liberation. DeCiccio is from Central Massachusetts where she grew up on occupied Nipmuc territory on her family’s 4th generation farm. She is the 3rd generation of her Polish and Italian ancestors and descends from 11 generations fo English colonizers. Before working as an artist full time DeCiccio was a mental health and substance abuse counselor and taught art at San Quentin Prison, St Elizabeths Forensic Psychiatric hospital & Leadership High School. The intersections of creativity, mental illness, addiction and ancestral investigation have been driving themes in her art practice since she was a teenager. DeCiccio is committed to repairing the harm of her inherited legacy and working to heal our collective imagination by learning how to stand squarely in truth, accountability, renewed resilience and unknown possibility. She is currently working on a body of work called Anatomy of the Colonial Fetish & Cynical Pilgrim, stay tuned!
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator, and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design.