Climate Change, Global Warming, Human Rights, and Migration: A Perspective from Two Los Angeles Immigrant Artists

This article focuses on the works of two long established Los Angeles based visual artists who use their different forms to provide critical commentary on climate change, global warming, and migration. Both artists, Yrneh Gabon Brown and Luciana Abait, emerge from the longer tradition of visual social commentary that has been favorably documented by major art historians and cognate scholars since the mid twentieth century. Each artist brings a unique perspective to the growing body of visual works focusing on the global climate crisis. Brown’s Jamaican background encourages him to examine climate change implications on communities of color, especially in the United States and in Africa. Abiait’s immigrant background and her traumatic experience from Argentina encourage her to examine climate change on global pattern of migration through her unique artwork. These efforts especially reveal communities of color fleeing desperate conditions of poverty and oppression. Together, their art inspires other artists to engage this topic and audiences to see visual culture as a path towards critical public engagement.