2025 has felt especially unrelenting. January brought devastating wildfires to Los Angeles, my hometown. Dozens of artists lost their homes and their work. Altadena, a creative hub of Black creativity for decades and, more recently, a home to many artists, was hit particularly hard.
The third Monday of January brought something much worse and more insidious the start of the second Trump administration, which has targeted both communities of color and the art world. ICE raids have intensified across the country, especially in predominantly Brown and Black communities, with the president emboldening immigration agents to abduct first and ask questions later. The toll this has taken on US citizens, legal residents, undocumented folks has been unconscionable, gut-wrenching, and quite frankly hard to put into words.Amid this immediate crisis, it’s understandable that some may overlook Trump’s broader attack on arts and culture—most notably his targeting of the Smithsonian Institution. This would be a mistake. Fascist governments target the arts because they inspire the oppressed to imagine a different way of living. The arts offer hope. Without that, draconian policies can be implemented with ease.
Many artists have created poignant and moving responses to 2025’s surge in ICE raids, as ARTnews contributor Tara Anne Dalbow details in a year-in-review column. To Dalbow’s list, I’ll add a special project by AMBOS (short for “Art Made Between Opposite Sides”) that was on view at Frieze Los Angeles in February. Founded by artist Tanya Aguiñiga, AMBOS’s booth presented ceramics made by migrants awaiting asylum hearings in Mexico; many of their collaborators were trans women. The sale of these affordably priced pieces, along with posters and beanies, were made to benefit this community members and offer monetary support during these complex asylum proceedings, which by the time Frieze open had all been canceled by the Trump administration. AMBOS has been an important collective in thinking through how art can effectively address what happens in the borderlands and help those directly impacted by the rupture of the US-Mexico border.
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