Five-masked woman, armed with longbows and submachine guns are posing en garde above the words: The Revolution Will Be Female. I am visiting 42-year-old artist Marcel Dzama at his Brooklyn studio which—though brimming with eye-catching curios—is organized enough for this poster-sized drawing to lay flat in the center of the room. "It's something I was working on for International Women's Day," he says, adding that he had made another version as a sign for the Women's March on Washington. I later discover on his Instagram a handful of such posters he'd drawn up for protest marches.
Dzama, pacific in character and gentle in speech, has seen the playful macabray of his illustrated characters and creatures—including goat-head dictators, dancing tree people, and sinister-looking masquerades—emerge from the art world and into pop culture in music videos, cinematic films, large staged-productions, and magazine covers. With his fame, Dzama has leveraged support toward various initiatives such as the children's non-profit 826NYC and the American Civil Liberties Union. At a time when the arts and education have come under unprecedented threat, sloganeering seems a natural output for the artist’s creativity.