"Tamir Rice - Black Lives Matter"
Katie Wohl’s art series “Black Lives Matter - Black Voices,” was inspired by the frustration and sadness she experienced and saw her community experience after Michael Brown was murdered on August 9, 2014, by Darrell Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department. After years of watching countless black men and women murdered by police officers, security guards and vigilantes in America art became an important outlet. She created art that would not only act as a therapeutic vehicle for her, but that she hoped might resonate with a larger community of people who are taking an active role in the problems in their society and maybe even garner attention from those who remained blind to the structural and institutional issues of race in America. She then started designing black and white portraits of black men and women using quotes from black female writers.
In her series, which still, unfortunately, is updated by new victims of police brutality and institutionalized racism, so far the series has included: Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland. Her designs can be found on art prints, tee-shirts, and cell phone cases. All proceeds are donated to the National Police Accountability Project.
Katie Wohl is an artist and activist currently living in her birthplace, New Orleans, LA. She has a B.A. in Performing Arts & Minor in Women's Studies from Emerson College in Boston and a Masters in Aesthetics & Politics - Critical Studies, from the California Institute of the Arts.