Black artists address Gaza, election, Diddy and other controversies

It’s a sentence and sentiment artist Fabian Williams felt Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on a music festival in Israel, killing 1,200 civilians and taking hostages.

Two weeks passed. Israel retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza. Williams read reports of atrocities committed against Israeli hostages. He watched footage showing bodies of Palestinian women and children in Gaza on his phone. He did not know much about the conflict but believed not enough people were talking about it.

He did more research, studied the history, and created a digital art series titled, “Israel: Across the Gaza-Verse.” He posted the images to his Instagram account of 20,000-plus followers on Halloween, exactly a year ago, knowing he would get strong responses from friends, Jewish and not.

“Artists are the ones that set the algorithm for our society, what our value set is, what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s cool, what’s not,” Williams said. “If we’re not telling people this is not cool, people are just going to carry on.”

Carolyn Cole

Carolyn Cole

If art is a reflection of the times in which it was created, the last 12 months have provided Atlanta artists with plenty of muses. From global conflicts to the presidential election and the downfall of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, some Black artists are not holding back. However, for those creatives, chiming in on certain topics comes with personal and financial risk.

‘Across the Gaza-Verse’

The name and concept for Williams’ “Gaza-Verse” was inspired by the 2023 animated film, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” When he first released the series, it came with two images.

One was a photo published by Al Jazeera of Israeli mourners, with the title of the series displayed in the center. Another piece, titled “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight,” shows three different versions of Spider-Man representing the U.S., Israel, and Palestine. In the first version, the U.S. and Israeli Spider-Man are pointing at Palestine in response to the attack, standing on rubble from an airstrike. After the attack, another image was released where all three countries are pointing at each other.

As the conflict and casualties grew, Williams felt like more countries would get involved, so more were added.

Some might wonder why Williams — a Black dude from Fayetteville, North Carolina, living in Atlanta — would care. Williams never questioned himself.

“I think Black people look at the situation differently because we’ve been treated like the Palestinians,” he said. “When we see massacres, we feel a way, mainly because we identify with the underdog. We identify with the downtrodden.”

Williams believes the countries involved in Middle East war, like multiverse versions of Spider-Man, behave as if they are the good guys. Rather than finding solutions, he said, they’re deflecting responsibilities.

Williams followed “Gaza-Verse” with “When Is Taken Land No Longer Stolen,” a second digital series featuring photographic images of displaced migrants, some including Palestinians and other centering Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, overlaid with text and hieroglyphics.

Courtesy

Courtesy

Williams said art and posters promoting the Black Panther Party and similar movements inspired him. “I’m actually just following the trends of people that came before me,” he said.

An accomplished muralist who typically works with oil, watercolors and pastels, Williams knows paying attention to where his art shows up is crucial. He wanted to use a digital platform because he believes that’s how people are consuming art now.

He was shocked when some Jewish peers asked him to remove the posts. Others thanked him.

“I’m getting people saying, ‘I’m glad you said something,’” Williams said.

“I’m like, ‘Why don’t you say something?’”

Art and intersectionality

To Williams’ point, Ayeola Omolara Kaplan is saying something. The Atlanta artist identifies as Black, Jewish and queer. She refers to her work — mostly using digital illustrations — as revolutionary surrealism mixing with pop art.

Kaplan grew up a Zionist, but now considers herself anti-Zionist, meaning she doesn’t agree with the call for a Jewish state in the Middle East.

Most of Kaplan’s work before Oct. 7 focused on her Jewish faith, with nods to Black activists such as Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “All of them really drew a lot of energy from their spirituality, so I try and do that from a Jewish perspective and point out the ways that Judaism can inspire activism,” she said.

After the attack, Kaplan felt immediately compelled to use her platform to talk about why what was happening in Gaza demanded more attention from American Jews. She could feel and hear tension mounting.

“I could just tell in my Jewish communities, people were demonizing Palestinian people for Oct. 7, as if the entirety of the Palestinian population was involved in it and needed to be punished,” she said.

Kaplan responded with an illustration, “Land Back,” showing a Black and Muslim girl next to each other, with the phrase, “Long Live Palestine” over their heads. Proceeds from purchased prints went to a medical relief organization in Gaza.

Courtesy

Courtesy

She posted the piece online on Oct. 24, 2023. Fallout was immediate.

Kaplan told the AJC that her Instagram account was flooded with antisemitic comments, others questioned if she, a Black woman, was truly Jewish. She said some went as far as to suggest harm should be brought upon her. This made her fearful of releasing anti-Zionist artwork.

“It just felt like not being public about my views was causing more harm,” she said.

In all, Kaplan has done five pieces inspired by the conflict. “Faris and Goliath” is an illustrative take on a photo of Faris Odeh, a young Palestinian boy photographed throwing rocks at an Israeli military tank.

Courtesy

Courtesy

“I just felt like what’s the point of being an artist that identifies as an abolitionist if I can’t talk about hard topics,” she said.

A Diddy dialogue

Atlanta artist FRKO is no stranger to creating art that sparks dialogue.

In recent months, the illustrator, cartoonist and satirist released a series of drawings of Diddy, inspired by legal troubles facing the jailed entertainment impresario, who is currently awaiting trial for alleged federal sex trafficking crimes.

FRKO likens himself to an ethnographer and feels an obligation to document current events as they happen — warts and all.

His illustrations and paintings feature exaggerated caricatures of prominent names, and over-the-top embellishments of historical and pop culture moments. Examples include the Alabama boat brawl, Shannon Sharpe’s antics, sports and music. If it happened in Black culture, FRKO’s 67,000 Instagram followers and collectors expect him to address it with art.

“I can’t control what people do, but I’m damn sure going to draw it,” he said.

Courtesy

Courtesy

FRKO’s collaborated with Gucci Mane, Adidas, Redbull, Adult Swim, and has been featured in major galleries. His T-shirts are popular with customers, who wear the garments or keep them wrapped in plastic for nostalgia.

When it comes to Diddy, FRKO hasn’t held back. His first drawing came in March, and featured Diddy hopping on a plane to evade Homeland Security and TMZ. The next month, he created a drawing that displayed Diddy’s likeness.

When news broke that federal agents raided Diddy’s homes in September and allegedly found more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil, FRKO turned that into a drawing. His latest, “The Diddler,” compares Diddy to the Batman nemesis, Riddler.

Diddy has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women, and denied claims made in the lawsuits.

For his Diddy series, FRKO says he received direct messages from followers who feel he is making light of pain experienced by alleged victims.

“I’m not making this stuff up. I’m pulling it from the story,” he said. “People are so stuck trying to hide things. I’m like, ‘No, it happened.’”

When asked why chooses to add embellishment, FRKO is blunt. “Because I can,” he said, adding that he has no plans of stopping.

“If more stuff comes out, I’m drawing it,” he said.

Critique and exploitation

Renowned artist and scholar Fahamu Pecou understands that self-expression reflects how one sees the world and their place in it. Pecou’s research centers on representations of Black masculinity and identity.

Standing in the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, a gallery he founded, Pecou brings up the aforementioned quote from James Baldwin. He also mentions a quote from Mexican poet Cesar A. Cruz who said, “Art should comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable.”

“I would say what Fabian is doing, what FRKO is doing is in conversation with that,” Pecou said. “It’s a long-held value of my own that an artist has a responsibility to respond to the world that we live in.”

That last part comes with a caveat. “It’s a fine line between critique and exploitation,” he said.

Pecou uses an example from the Jim Crow South, when racist caricatures of Black people were created and sold as art, despite the long-term harm they caused. The same can be true for Black artists in 2024.

“Ultimately these things that you’re putting out in the world are shaping perception. The artist’s role is to be responsive, but also to be thoughtful and try to figure out, ‘OK, What am I doing with this? What do I want this to do in the world?’”

“I do think that we have a tendency now to make everything political,” he said. “Art becomes one of the last bastions for nuance.”

Paint the future

With the U.S. presidential election around the corner, Williams and FRKO have been no strangers to political commentary.

As part of an ongoing series of faux comic book covers called, “Watchn’Em,” Williams released an illustration of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, pulled from his Fulton County Jail mug shot.

The date on the cover, Aug. 24, 2023, references when Trump surrendered to Fulton County authorities on racketeering and other charges tied to the 2020 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges.

Seen laughing at Trump in the background are Fani Willis, Oprah, Cardi B, Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Courtesy

Courtesy

FRKO was once a political cartoonist for his college newspaper at Howard University. He’s made work that pokes fun at Willis, Trump, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Raphael Warnock, Mayor Andre Dickens, former senators Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue.

Aside from doing a T-shirt with local civic organizations for the In Atlanta We Vote hard-core, FRKO’s hasn’t addressed the current election. “I’m not really a political person. I’m not religious. I don’t have any hard core views. I’m just just doing art,” he said.

Williams, Kaplan and FRKO said they’ve lost opportunities over their art.

Williams lost out on gigs after painting a mural honoring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick at an abandoned building on the corner of Fair Street and Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard. In 2016, Kaepernick started kneeling during the national anthem protesting how people of color are treated in America.

“Having an opinion can be very expensive,” Williams said. “I didn’t work for damn-near four or five months because I painted Kaepernick.”

A Jewish museum in Ohio canceled what would’ve been Kaplan’s first solo gallery show when she released, “Land Back.” Kaplan was notified of the museum’s decision via email, which she shared with the AJC.

“For that to be something that made a Jewish organization no longer want to work with me was a big sign that if I continue to make more work in this direction, I would continue losing clients and opportunities,” she said.

“I haven’t had that many corporate jobs this year, and my corporate jobs dwindle every year because of my commentary on things,” FRKO added.

For the most part, FRKO is staying out of the fray when it comes to Harris versus Trump. He won’t choose sides. He’s also never voted. “With the politics stuff, everybody’s trying to get me to do straight one way with Republican and Democrat. I’m going to clown both of them,” he said.

Williams voted for Harris, but a year after his series launched, he’s feeling less enthused about the prospect of generating art from current American politics and world events. “I’ve decided recently that I’m going to paint more about a future that I want to be in versus what I don’t like right now,” he said.

For Williams, the present-day reality includes legislation targeting critical race theory and Black history. Creating art is about building confidence in the next generation of Black artists to encourage them to speak up.

“I’m looking forward; I do believe in the brilliance of the kids coming after me,” Williams said. “I feel like these kids can make anything, so let me just give them something to make.”

Become a member of UATL for more stories like this in our free newsletter and other membership benefits.

Follow UATL on Facebook, on X, TikTok and Instagram.