Banksy may be the most famous street artist addressing topics like capitalism, war, the refugee crisis and environmental degradation, but he’s far from the only one. These political works by a wide range of international artists call attention to the ravages of the palm oil industry, police brutality, climate change, rapid industrialization and human trafficking with powerful visuals in public places.

Ernest Zacharevic, Isaac Cordal & Strok: Splash and Burn

In western Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra, the palm oil industry is ravaging the forests, cruelly killing and displacing species like the orangutan. The ‘Splash and Burn’ project, curated by Ernest Zacharevic, aims to call attention to these issues through art installations by international creatives. Ernest’s own contribution is a gut-wrenching mural of the forest on fire as an orangutan tries to escape, while Strok’s shows how workers attempt to rescue orangutans clinging to life in mostly-destroyed forests. Isaac Cordal, who’s known for his street installations of miniature figures, shows recovery efforts in action, along with a striking representation of those who get rich on the industry.

Sophia Dawson: Police Brutality

Brooklyn artist Sophia Dawson has painted many hard-hitting murals in her own city, including the two shown here, which say “We Want an Immediate End to Police Brutality and Murder of Black People’ and educate the public on their rights. “I endeavor to create a narrative art that addresses human and political struggle,” says Dawson. “In doing so my aim is to convey the true stories and experiences of oppressed people from political movements in ways that more broadly form, shade and convey the individual and collective injustices they face.”

NeverCrew: Environmental Tragedies

The Swiss street artist duo known as NeverCrew (Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni) created a series of public murals addressing climate change, women asylum seekers and other issues throughout 2016. Of ‘Black Machine,’ the image of the polar bear covered in oil, the artists say “Playing with the line of sight of the forced point of view from the sidewalk and inspiring us to the theater (on whose wall was made the painting,) we decided to work on the idea of representation intended in a broad sense as portrayal, as performance and as a figuration of reality. We used direct references to the theatrical context to define a ‘real’ proportion and a starting point, but we wanted to move the attention on global warming related to human habits. We have then developed these issues trying to evoke the position (and responsibility) of man in a delicate balance, into the ecosystem, and so the choice points of view, of real awareness and the idea of a passive condition in a system.”

Sr. X: Capitalism Critiques

Spanish artist Sr. X completed this rooftop mural on an old billboard platform on London’s Great Eastern Street, with a pointed critique that requires no further explanation.

Pejac: The World Going Down the Drain

The world threatens to melt through a storm drain into the sewer below in this Santander, Spain street piece by Spanish artist Sylvestre Santiago, better known as Pejac.

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Murals With A Message 23 Works Of Statement Making Street Art

As railway systems decay in the United States and flourish elsewhere in the world, works of art pop up in train cars and along disused tracks, paying tribute to the journey of a transportation system in transition. Painted murals display works of art across long distances, interior installations make trips more engaging and projects reclaiming abandoned tracks mull over their history and the scars they leave on the landscape.

Kiev Metro Murals by Okuda San Miguel

For Ukraine’s Independence Day, street artist Okuda San Miguel painted an entire train from the Kiev metro network in his signature style, full of rainbow geometry and the faces of animals and people.

Mobile Garden on Chicago’s Transit System

Chicago’s public transit system was temporarily transformed into a mobile garden for the Art on Track festival, inviting passengers to walk and sit on grass among lush vegetation as they made their way across the city.

Yarn-Bombed Train by Olek

Crochet artist Olek yarn-bombed an entire train, working for two days straight with four assistants to cover an entire locomotive in Lodz, Poland with brightly-colored camouflage-pattern crochet.

Spray-Painted Landscape Along Philadelphia Train Route

Artist Katharina Grosse spray-painted the landscape of one of Philadelphia’s train routes, including abandoned warehouses and stretches of grass, in seven vibrant colors for her large-scale public artwork ‘Psychylustro.’

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Off The Rails 12 Artistic Interventions Of Train Cars Rail Yards

Over the past year and a half the WebUrbanist readership has continued to grow at a very healthy pace. The site that started as a hobby has fast become one of the most-read online publications and along the way has even been selected by the Google Reader Blog as a staff favorite. The site’s readership is partly composed of the general web audience that loves the site’s niche-leading content focused on urban art, design, and culture, and is partly composed of artist themselves. We often get emails from artists wanting to have their works showcased on the site and starting today we will be doing regular features on artists from WebUrbanist’s fanbase. Please enjoy the first of these features and if you would like your work to be featured, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Summer Colors from Tom Mohn

Tired of this unrelenting winter weather already? Enjoy these pictures of fireworks captured using an old 35mm SLR Minolta camera on a bulb exposure (about 1-3 seconds). The photos are taken through a rainbow window prism filter (which accounts for the radial color spikes) and a Jupitor Scope.

100% Non-Toxic Handmade Bamboo Furniture from Facundo Poj

Miami-based Argentinian designer Facundo Poj is a trained master builder and has a Masters Degree in Urban Affairs and Environmental Problems. All of Poj’s designs are created with sustainability in mind.

Displaced Furniture from Ian Gonsher

Ian Gonsher is a Rhode Island-based furniture and housewares designer as well as an instructor at Brown University. Gonsher sums up his philosophy succinctly as, “To be competitive, you have to see what others might have missed.”

On the Grind from Adam Ryder & Brian Rosa

On the Grind is a project by Adam Ryder and Brian Rosa that explores the landscape immediately surrounding high-tension electric transmission lines in Rhode Island. The goal of the resulting photos is to showcase the diversity surrounding these structures.

Amazing Freestanding Typewriter Sculptures from Jeremy Mayer

Jeremy Mayer has a very simple mission, to “disassemble typewriters and then reassemble fill-scale, anatomically correct human figures.” But don’t be deceived by that straightforward explanation. Mayer’s sculptures are created without using any glue, welding, or soldering, and the end results are truly fantastic works of art.

Dynamic Light Graffiti from Magnus

Magnus has managed to create and photograph some truly great (albiet transient) works of abstract light graffiti in a collection called LED and Time.

One Billion Dollars from Mike Marcovici

In case you’re frantically looking for the location of this sculpture so you can pull a bank job, stop now, while definitely impressive looking, the money above is actually fake. When asked for more detailes, Mike did say that he is looking to recreate it with actual money in a vault… somewhere.

Massive Beach Paintings from Andres Amador

Andres Amador’s Art for the Senses includes these amazing large-scale beach paintings. The paintings are several hundred feet across and are a collective effort of sometimes up to a dozen people.

Vintage Object Recycling and Reassembly from Cat Bishop

Vintage and recycled assemblage artists Cat Bishop has found a niche for herself of which she can’t possible tire ‘since the components and possibilities are endless.’ ‘On a good day,’ she says, ‘the pieces tend to assemble themselves’ and on a bad day, she manages to teach herself something news.

Urban Art and Inventions from SpY

SpY is an international artist from Madrid whose works consist primarily of playful repurposing or reappropriation of everyday urban elements to make an observation of the urban environment and a statement on the inertia of the urban dweller.