Banksy's Bowery Wall mural supports jailed Kurdish artist Zehra Doğan

Banksy returned to New York in 2018 with a politically charged mural on the Bowery Wall, a landmark graffiti site at Bowery and Houston Street in Manhattan. The work, created in collaboration with street artist Borf, features a minimalist pattern of black lines evoking prison bars, with a portrait of Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Doğan emerging from a small window. Doğan was arrested on July 21, 2016, in Nusaybin, Turkey, and sentenced on March 2, 2017, to 2 years, 9 months, and 22 days in prison for posting a painting on social media that depicted Turkish flags amid rubble from government bombings. She is the director of Jinha, a Kurdish news agency run by women. Banksy's mural, accompanied by the hashtag #FREEzehradogan, was projected onto the building each evening. The artist told the New York Times, "I'm very sorry for her. I've drawn things that would have deserved a conviction much more." The Bowery Wall was first used by Keith Haring in 1982; since 2008, the Goldman Group, with curator Jeffrey Deitch and The Hole gallery, has commissioned artists including Os Gemeos, Shepard Fairey, JR, Ron English, and Futura2000. Doğan, from prison, stated, "No artist turns their back on society; a painter must use their brush as a weapon against oppressors."