We all know the art we see in museums – classical paintings by all the greats throughout time hovering over you as you pass through the ever-winding halls. Art can be so much more than what you see in these walls, though – art is limitless. It is language. And it is political. Art can be used to spark conversations in communities or as a response to events in the world around us.

Activist art flourishes in the corners of the artistic universe – seeing activist art is not nearly as simple as going to the museum and having it all spelled out for you. Yet, these are the conversations that artists here and now are trying to put into action. Here are a few of these artists and their causes.

1. Micah Bizant

"Our performance is our resistance, and trans resistance is beautiful."

Bizant is a trans activist of color whose art celebrates the activism of trans individuals. Their project, Trans Life and Liberation Art Series, releases a new portrait of a trans activist of color weekly on their Tumblr along with a statement by this activist. They started this project by creating portraits of trans activists who were killed due to their activism and trans identity – Bizant took this to heart, and decided to create a portrait series to honor and celebrate these activists while they were still alive.

2. Samia A. Halaby

"We must show all of our experiences honestly."

Halaby was born in the midst of the Israeli occupation in Palestine and was a child during Nakbe – the tragedy which displaced over 800,000 Palestinians from their homes. When she and her sisters found safety again, they began to draw. Drawings turned into paintings, turned into sculpture, turned into installations. Her studio is a testament to the sleeping memories of a Palestinian refugee and has revolutionary work from similar artists around the world. One of her greatest known projects is the Liberation Art of Palestine which marked the beginning of the artistic liberation movement.

3. Olafur Eliasson

"It’s not just about decorating the world… but about taking responsibility."

Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic contemporary artist known for his installation work utilizing large-scale space and light. He often takes on issues of climate change. His piece, Your Waste of Time, utilized chunks of ice that had broken off of Iceland’s few remaining glaciers. It was placed in a refrigerated installation space powered by solar panels and put humanity’s experience into perspective by placing 800 years of history in front of the viewer, clearly destroyed by climate change.

4. Andres Serrano

"Even though they're here, most people don't see them."

Serrano is a photographer giving voice to the homeless in New York City His latest photoseries, Residents of New York, depicts over 85 homeless men and women living on the city’s streets, and is a call to action for New Yorkers to pay attention to their humanity. He has also done art series in which he bought signs off of the homeless on the streets to showcase in galleries, and bring attention to the struggles faced by the homeless in our country daily.

5. Ben Quilty

"We have the foundations of a brilliant contemporary society. The bricks are just cracking... And with guidance, and the right people standing up, it will find itself again."

Quilty began his work as an official war artist for the Afghanistan war. His show, After Afghanistan, showed portraits of nude Australian soldiers – presenting them as very human and very vulnerable. He is very critical of the current state of governmental policies and creates art which challenges them. His latest project involved travelling to Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, Greece, and Serbia to renew the public’s passion for the injustice of refugee treatment.

6. The Clothesline Project

"Bearing witness to violence against women for 25 years."

CLP started on Cape Cod, MA, in 1990 to address the problem of violence against women, and is a force for women who have been affected to send their voices to be heard. They do so by decorating a shirt and gathering these shirts together to be displayed on clotheslines in public spaces to call attention to the issue and put it out in the world to actually be seen. This gives testimony that nobody is alone in this, and shows others that it is a violence which must find an end. This project has since been spread worldwide, with many groups, campuses, and communities putting on their own project.

7. The Guerilla Girls

“We're feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonderwoman, and Batman.”

The Guerilla Girls started in 1985 with a group of women artists who took on the names of dead women artists and wore gorilla masks in public to conceal their identities – forcing the public to deal with the issues rather than their personalities. They have produced posters, billboards, public actions, impromptu art, books, and other projects to help make feminism accessible, funny, and fashionable.

8. Swoon

"It's the smaller stuff that affects the larger things."

Swoon creates intricate pieces made of paper and puts them in public spaces, as well as installations and floating pieces. She uses paper because it is a fragile medium which eventually peels away and disintegrates – representing the transience of the focus on tragedy in our culture. Her work often focuses on dead or disappeared people.

9. Ugo Rondinone

"[It's] about the contrary air between the desert and the city lights... the natural and the artificial."

Rondinone uses his talents todraw attention to humanity’s relationship with and impact on the environment. His work, Seven Magic Mountains, is created with bright painted rock towers placed in the desert to draw people’s attention to the natural areas around them and encourage a stronger relationship with the environment. These towers look as if they are protectors of the desert, and will eventually become part of the landscape as the environment takes them over with erosion, fading, and dirt.

10. Bill Posters

"It's now more important than ever to call out their lies and speak truth to power."

Posters is the face to the Brandalism movement, who has made statements on the need to call out world leaders’ lies and speak truth to power. Over 80 artists from over 19 countries expressed the public’s outrage at the corporate takeover of Paris. They put up over 600 unauthorized pieces of art around the city in the form of spoof advertisements to call attention to the issues of climate change and democracy in the city.