Aaron Hughes
Chicago, IL
Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, teacher, anti-war activist, and Iraq War veteran. He works collaboratively in diverse spaces and media to create meaning out of personal and collective trauma, deconstruct and transform systems of oppression, and seek liberation. Working through an interdisciplinary practice rooted in drawing and printmaking, Hughes develops projects that deconstruct militarism and related institutions of dehumanization. These projects often utilize popular research strategies, experiment with forms of direct democracy, and operate in solidarity with the people most impacted by structural violence. In addition to his work with Justseeds, Hughes works with a range of art and activist projects including About Face: Veterans Against the War (formerly Iraq Veterans Against the War), Warrior Writers, emerging Veteran Art Movement, and Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.
Other Media
Artist Interests
AnarchismAnti-capitalismAnti-warEcology & AnimalsEducationEnvironment & ClimateFeminisms & GenderGlobal SolidarityHealthHistoryIndigenous ResistanceLaborMigrationPolice & PrisonsRacial JusticeSocial Movements Associated Projects
2025 Community Supported Art | All We Have Is Each Other & IVAW: Operation Recovery / Operation Exposure
Slow Cooker
Justseeds Collaboration
$25
Toward Radical Futures: a Justseeds Coloring Book
Justseeds Collaboration
$15
Toward Radical Futures: a Justseeds Coloring Book Bundle of 10
Justseeds Collaboration
$120
Protectors: Saving Biodiversity in the Age of Extinction
Justseeds Collaboration
$480
Muhammad Ali Resisted. You Can Too.
$25
Toward Radical Futures + Be the Change! Coloring Book Bundle
Justseeds Collaboration
Out of Stock
Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem) Double Vinyl Record
$45
Global Climate Strike
$25
Preserve the Solidarity Mural
January 30, 2024
Fifty years ago, a team of artists led by John Pitman Weber and Jose Guerrero created Solidarity, a mural in the lobby of the UE Hall in Chicago, in what…
Forest Defenders in Chicago Streets
June 15, 2023
Forest defenders protect all of life. Forests keep carbon out of the atmosphere, regulate weather and protect global biodiversity. Forests are vital for all of us, but consumer goods giants…
AUTONOMOUS DEMOCRACY in the streets of London
April 19, 2023
In collaboration with Arcade, and to mark 20 years since the largest demonstration in British history against the 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq and coinciding with Peoples’ Coalition occupation of…
Free Captive Art from Guantánamo
October 17, 2022
Eight Guantánamo survivors, in solidarity with the men who are still extralegally imprisoned there, have written an open letter (below) to President Biden calling for an end to a Trump-era…
New “Remaking the Exceptional” Podcast Launch Marks 20 Years of Torture at GITMO
January 11, 2022
Today, marks the 20 years since the US opened the extralegal military prison and torture facility at Guantánamo. As many of you know this is an issue that has been…
The new podcast Getting Into Step
June 4, 2021
The Kairos Center and the NYS Poor People’s Campaign, recently launched the pilot episode of our new podcast, Getting Into Step. The podcast is dedicated to illuminating the times in which we…
The time for Justice for Tamir Rice is now!
June 4, 2021
Tamir’s Campaign for Justice is a solidarity campaign with Samaria Rice focused on obtaining justice for Tamir Rice, her 12-year-old son who was fatally shot by Cleveland police in 2014….
Abolish Militarism
May 11, 2021
Celebrate the launch of DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE, Justseeds’ newest art portfolio and booklet in collaboration with the powerful movement organization Dissenters, by supporting their important anti-militarism organizing trainings and anti-militarist campaigns! Contribute…
Justseeds releases new DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE Portfolio & Booklet
May 1, 2021
This May Day, in partnership with the Dissenters, Justseeds released the new DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE portfolio and booklet during an Art Against Empire launch event. The Dissenters is a movement organization leading a…
We Are Not Disposable: Food Workers Organizing on the COVID Frontlines
March 1, 2021
“We went on strike because the company didn’t care to give us basic protections, and kept exposing us to get sick or die. For weeks we demanded the company to…
The COVID Jungle
January 19, 2021
Food workers are essential workers! The COVID Jungle: Chicagoland’s Essential Food Workers and the Need for Vaccination Priority a new report released by the Chicago based Warehouse Workers for Justice…
Raise It Up! CPG for South Side Community Art Center
December 14, 2020
The Chicago Printers Guild is rallying its members and community to support the efforts and contributions that the Southside Community Art Center continues to make in the Bronzeville Neighborhood and…
Palestine will be free! Graphic care-package #2
Justseeds Collaboration
Size: 162.30 MB
Format: PDF/JPG
Abolish Guantánamo
DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE (cover)
Self-Determination
We Will Not Be Divided
DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE
Solidarity with Alabama Amazon Workers
We Are Not Disposable: Food Workers Organizing on the COVID Frontlines
Stop Line 3 Care Package
Justseeds Collaboration
Size: 65.85 MB
Format: PDF, JPG, & PNG
Warehouse Workers for Justice: COVID Jungle
Manifest Real Democracy Wisconsin
The People Shall Rule
Carving Out Rights from Inside the Prison Industrial Complex
Out of Stock
Building Power, Building Resistance
Out of Stock
DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE Booklet
Justseeds Collaboration
Out of Stock
DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE Portfolio
Justseeds Collaboration
Out of Stock
Building Power, Building Resistance
Out of Stock
Learn As We Lead
Out of Stock
Solidaridad Sin Fronteras
Out of Stock
Solidarity
Out of Stock
Water is Life
Out of Stock
Water is Life
Out of Stock
Welcome Home
Out of Stock