When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, an art piece by Shepard Fairy became synonymous with his campaign. Campaign art isn’t new, but in the era of social media, these unsolicited works have become much more visible—as reflective in their own way of a campaign’s personality as its official slogans.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has embraced this new dynamic even more than Obama did. He has pledged to be “an arts president,” and he set up a traveling exhibition as part of his campaign. It’s called “Art of a Political Revolution.” I initially wrote the show off as propaganda, an attempt to pander to the sort of young people who’ve flocked to his campaign, but the actual exhibit surprised me. It features several seasoned street artists and graffiti writers, many of whom didn’t even create work that included Bernie’s name or likeness. It had unexpected integrity. As seen in the video above, the experience was more akin to a street art show than a blue-chip gallery exhibition that you might more readily associate with someone seeking the most powerful office in the country.
