On Monday, despite preparations for Art Basel Miami Beach being well under-way, around 200 curators, artists, writers, and cultural workers in the contemporary art field joined in a march outside the Downtown Manhattan building in which the president-elect’s daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, live.
“Dear Ivanka,” the protest’s title, drew notable artists like Cecily Brown, Rob Pruitt, Ryan McNamara, Jonah Freeman, Dan Colen, and Marilyn Minter; as well as writers and curators like Wendy Vogel, Brian Droitcour, Zoë Lescaze, David Velasco, Sarah Nicole Prickett, Alison Gingeras, Carolyn Ramo, and Fabiola Alondra, along with dealers and advisors Jay Gorney, Bill Powers, and Erin Goldberger, ArtNews reports.
Minter, who is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, told the New York Times of her involvement: “The culture changes, and fascism rears its ugly head every so often and that’s what’s happening now,” she said. “We wanted to do something to start to the ball rolling, to grow a protest, and we’re artists, so we know how to make posters.”
The protest was organized by Halt Action Group (HAG), which is headed by artist Jonathan Horowitz, curator Alison Gingeras, and dealer Bill Powers.
The organization also has an Instagram account as well as a website, which is staunchly anti-Trump and appeals to his daughter, who is also a collector, as the voice of reason.
“Ivanka, it’s not okay!” the landing page reads, next to a photo of Trump’s daughter and her husband. “Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia are not acceptable anywhere—least of all in the White House. Steve Bannon has no place in the White House. Jeff Sessions has no place in the White House. Talk of a Muslim registry has no place in the White House. Hate has no place in the White House.”