"Unify" by Amy Smith.
Los Angeles County celebrates 100 years since the ratification and adoption of the 19th Amendment in August 1920. Despite its passage, many women of color were barred from voting for decades through racial discrimination and intimidation. To honor this centennial and the ongoing work toward achieving equity, the Department of Arts and Culture collaborated with the LA County Women and Girls Initiative to commission six artists to create commemorative artworks.
The project invited LA's creative community to explore and celebrate the achievements of the Suffragists and place the movement in a larger historical context. The resulting artworks reflect a diversity of women and perspectives and highlight themes such as empowerment, civic engagement, resiliency, and the right to vote.
The original artworks will be accessioned into the LA County Civic Art Collection, framed, and installed in the LA County Board of Supervisors and Department of Arts and Culture offices.
Each artwork has been made into a sharable graphic that can be easily downloaded and posted on social to inspire others to exercise their right to vote on November 3. In addition, posters will be available to download and post in your home office, school, or place of business.
Media coverage of the project appeared in Spectrum News, Daily News, NBC, CBS, City News, and LA Post.
LA County Library has made three of the artworks into special edition library cards, which are now available at Library locations currently offering Sidewalk Service while supplies last. Existing LA County Library cards may be exchanged for these designs, free of charge. For more information about the cards, as well as curated customized book lists and virtual programming - including a special interview with the artists - click the Learn More button below.
The Women and Girls Initiative has created a timeline celebrating 100 women who played a role in shaping LA County, an interactive map showing how many women in LA County are eligible to vote but have not registered, and a toolkit to increase voter registration.
Interested in registering to vote and finding vote centers in Los Angeles County?
Downloadable Graphics
These graphics are available to download and share on your personal @insta accounts, and to print out in two different poster sizes (8.5X11 and 24X36) at no charge.
The Artists
Ragni Agarwal - 'Why We Vote'
About the Artwork
Driven by a pop-art aesthetic and bold colors, the underlying theme in Ragni Agarwal’s work is the beauty of diversity and inclusion. Her piece is derived from Martin Schoeller’s portrait for Vanity Fair of six freshman congresswomen from the class of 2018, the most diverse in history, showing how a woman’s right to vote directly impacts her life. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Deb Haaland, Veronica Escobar, and Sharice Davids are exercising their civic duty by serving in office, a direct outcome of the 19th Amendment. By doing so, they continue to raise the glass ceiling for all women.
About the Artist
Ragni Agarwal is an art director, graphic designer, and illustrator living in Los Angeles. Mental health, body (dis)illusions, and self-destructive thoughts and behaviors are the focus of her work. She creates bold, beautiful images that are reflective of the dark and the light inside everyone. She does not believe in societal pressures or definitions of beauty, and addresses these issues head-on through her work, drawing women in all their beautiful forms, shapes, sizes, and colors.
Clarence J Williams III - 'Mary'
About the Artwork
Born on May 17, 1920, in Napoleonville, LA, Mary London was three months old when the 19th Amendment was ratified. While the Amendment acknowledged “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” it did not guarantee every woman the right to vote. In Mary’s state of Louisiana, poll taxes prevented the majority of Black citizens from voting in elections until the 24th Amendment declared these taxes unconstitutional in 1964. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Clarence J. Williams III captured this portrait of Mary outside her home in Kenner, LA, where she survived through Hurricane Katrina, illuminating her strength and resolve.
About the Artist
Clarence Williams, a native of Philadelphia, has spent more than two decades pursuing the truth with his camera. Widely known for his unyielding determination and sacrifice to his art, Clarence has been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography (as a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times), the Robert F. Kennedy Photojournalism Award, and the National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year award. He recently completed work on a public art commission for Metro for the new stop at Second and Broadway Streets, which is planned to open in 2022. He chronicled New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricane Katrina in a long-term project supported by the Open Society Institute. Additionally, he taught and served as the Head of Photojournalism at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Laura Vazquez Rodriguez - 'Raise Your Voice'
About the Artwork
Los Angeles native Laura Vazquez Rodriguez celebrates the region’s rich cultural diversity with a focus on spirituality, love, and healing. In this piece, she honors the courageous women who fought diligently for the right to vote and celebrates those who continue to fight for equal rights today.
About the Artist
Laura Vazquez Rodriguez was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in the small community of Pico Rivera. Laura’s love for her culture and deep faith are reflected in each of her pieces. A skilled visual storyteller, her paintings are filled with symbolism. Each piece is a story that unfolds to illuminate a message: we are all connected.
Laura has exhibited at Self Help Graphics, UCLA, Cal Poly Pomona, The University of Arizona, Whittier College, Santa Paula’s California Oil Museum, Gallery ChimMaya, Casa 0101, and Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. Her commercial art has appeared on book covers, on educational posters, in documentaries, and in several periodicals.
Moses X Ball - 'Resistance and Restitution'
About the Artwork
Moses X Ball depicts five important Black women suffragists who fought for an intersectional vision linking race, class, and gender. Moses’ work declares that Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Nannie H. Burroughs, Mary B. Talbert, and Frances E.W. Harper deserve proper recognition for their accomplishments with improving the lives of all women.
About the Artist
Moses’ work deals with important issues from history as well as the present day. He recently worked with Metro to create the Heart of Hyde Park mural on the US Bank at Crenshaw Blvd. and Slauson Ave. This mural is of particular importance to South LA as it depicts community activists and local business owners alongside neighborhood youth. He worked with Angelique Smith to include her son Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom in the mural. Previous projects include Gateway to Greatness for the Expo Center at Exposition Park, featuring Olympians and Paralympians of Color. as well as Promise a collaboration with Blue Shield to create an art therapy/public art program, focused on helping South LA youth and youth in the foster system cope with obstacles and problems, using art to express and work through those issues. Throughout his career, Moses has sought to work with community groups and residents on the murals he creates, reflecting and inspiring the people who live in the areas he seeks to beautify.
Andrea Monroe - 'Not Done Yet'
About the Artwork
In Andrea Monroe’s celebratory painting, a modern-day woman stands arm-in-arm with a Suffragist at a women’s rights march. Her painting conveys the joy of past achievements while acknowledging that the fight for equal rights, equal pay, and autonomy over their bodies has not been won for women. And so the march continues.
About the Artist
Andrea Monroe was born in Chicago, Illinois to second generation Lithuanian parents. She was often found doodling patterns and animals to pass the time as a girl Primarily a self-taught artist, Andrea has worked as a fashion photographer’s studio manager, model, bookkeeper, retail fashion buyer, and has had a thirty-year career in the film industry as a costumer. After the birth of her son in 1998, Andrea began to paint. Nature, feminine energy, and emotion dictate the direction of her paintings, with bursts of color, a collage of shapes and lines, and a message bringing the viewer closer in to ponder, wonder, and enjoy.
Amy Smith - 'Unify'
About the Artwork
In her collage portrait, artist Amy Smith combines her photography with layers of hand-cut stencils and pieces of protest signage to reflect on the suffrage movement and the modern woman. By juxtaposing historic suffragette signs with contemporary portraits of diverse women, she acknowledges our past and looks to the future to do better than we did before. We evolve together, and so we rise together.
About the Artist
Amy Smith is a self-taught contemporary artist. Born in New Jersey, she moved to Los Angeles where she found inspiration, mentors, and support in the street art community. In her Collage Portrait Series, Amy Smith uses photography, layers of hand cut stencils, and torn recycled fashion magazine pieces to deconstruct self-identity from brand identity. Smith’s mixed media collages have been shown at Saatchi’s The Other Art Fair, Wallspace Gallery, The Whole 9 Gallery, and been part of auctions such as Julien’s Auctions with artists like Mr. Brainwash, Shepard Fairey, and Andy Warhol. Smith’s works can also be found on online galleries like SaatachiArt and Artsy.net.