A group of six local visual artists has banded together to present an exhibition that both echoes the past and sounds an alarm about the future.

The exhibit’s title, the “Degenerate” Art Show, recalls the brutal title given by the Nazi Party to a 1937 exhibit in Munich. The exhibit, meant to slur and shame artists the Party did not approve of, featured modern artworks that had been seized by the regime. Artists of that time who were labeled “degenerate” by the Nazis included Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and many others.

Vashon’s “Degenerate” Art Show will be something very different, according to its creators, Alice Larson, Gregory Burnham, Bill Cleaver, Bill Jarcho, Marc Pease and Lenard Yen. Their show — with an opening reception taking place from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, at Snapdragon Bakery & Café — will celebrate the power of art to protest injustice and defy censorship.

The reception will also feature performances by the Free Range Freedom Choir and the drumming “bucket brigade” of Indivisible Vashon, as well as other timely performance art touches.

“Every day this becomes a more important show as we see the arts attacked and the erosion of our freedom of speech,” said Larson, who will exhibit her distinctive origami work in the show. “What is happening now parallels fascism in Germany under Hitler — anything not toeing the line of the [Trump] administration in power is deleted, banned and those related to it are punished.”

Lenard Yen’s mixed-media work in the show, “Ode to Lucian Freud,” directly addresses the Nazi era.

“[The artist] Lucian Freud and his family left Berlin for London in 1933 during the rise of fascism because of their ties to Modernism in both art and thought,” Yen said. “I happened to be painting a portrait of Lucian Freud two weeks before his passing and upon hearing of his death I tore that painting into pieces and collaged them into the piece ‘Ode to Lucian Freud.’”

He called the work “an example of art that is not in the service of the state and instead provokes the viewer to confront the current time of rising authoritarianism and the upending turmoil it causes in people’s lives.”

Other works in the show directly depict President Donald Trump, including Marc Pease’s encaustic work illustrating the juxtaposition of the president’s golf outings with the turmoil brought about by the current government shutdown.

The work is also a rebuke, Pease said, to “Trump’s comments on social media about ‘leftist, out-of-control cities and elected officials’ standing in opposition to his policies, and media outlets he feels have not supported his administration.”

Bill Jarcho — a longtime island artist, puppeteer and activist — said his work in the show is “just a continuation of cartoons and art I’ve been making ever since Trump came to power.” Along with other islanders, he’s recently created performance art that has gotten national media attention during ‘No Kings’ protests, including giant costumes of “LICE agents” as well as a “chain gang” of Trump and his administration members in shackles and prison stripes.

“I feel this is the best use of my talent and time these days, to help stand up to and humiliate the menaces that are rapidly destroying our democracy,” Jarcho said.

Gregory Burnham, too, has long made political art, but doesn’t define himself as a radical.

“I’m a regular guy who believes in constitutional rights and equal opportunity,” he said. “I want my granddaughters to grow up in a country that truly values the democratic process and empathy for others. I hope that’s possible.”

Bill Cleaver, whose mixed-media work in the show includes a framed tableau of a child holding a match next to an American flag, defined the show and the urge to create it, in a simple way.

“We are artists, so this is how we express our concerns,” he said. “We hope this show will inspire others to find their own way to declare their distress.”

The “Degenerate” Art Show will run through November at Snapdragon.

The “Degenerate” Art Show includes works by (top row, left to right) Gregory Burnham, Lenard Yen, Marc Pease, (bottom row) Bill Jarcho, Alice Larson and Bill Cleaver. (Courtesy Photo)