The Chinese Art Ai Weiwei has become known for using his art as a form of activism, and his most recent focus has been on the refugee crisis. After having established a studio on the island of Lesbos in Greece and undertaken research on the migrant crisis in Europe, Weiwei withdrew an installation from a group exhibition of Chinese artists at the AroS Aarhus Kunstmuseum and closed an entire solo show at Copenhagen’s Faurschou Foundation in late January after the Danish government passed a law to allow the Danish government to seize valuables from asylum seekers entering Denmark.
His retractions made a powerful statement not only about his stance on the refugee crisis, but on the relationship between artists and cultural institutions. No doubt well aware of his prominent position in the art world, Ai Weiwei continues to use his own privilege to call attention to the needs of asylum seekers through numerous other actions, such as his installation of life jackets left by migrants on the beaches of Greece around the columns of the Konzerthaus in Berlin, or his own appropriation of the infamous image of the Syrian toddler on the beach, whose body he replaces with his own.
To read more about his show withdrawal: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/27/ai-weiwei-shuts-danish-show-in-protest-at-asylum-seeker-law