Impunity through the eyes of Bradley McCallum at the Robert Blumenthal gallery in New York

by Fiana Gantheret

The work of Brooklyn based artist Bradley McCallum is in David Ebony’s Top Ten New York Gallery Shows this Winter. More specifically, his series of painted portraits, part of the Weights and Measures project, is. More specifically, international justice is.

Until March 5th, the Robert Blumenthal Gallery shows – together with six paintings of the Protest series – Bradley McCallum’s collection of oil paintings based on photographs of defendants being tried before various international criminal tribunals. This series aims at exploring the well-known public images of individuals such as Radovan Karadzic and Charles Taylor sitting before their judges as well as their reversed versions like negative film of photographs. In so doing, Bradley McCallum delves into less explored aspects of the fight against impunity such as the loss of a man’s freedom or the humane dimensions of trying mass criminals…

Triptych and ‘reversal’ triptych of Slobodan Milošević, Thomas Lubanga, and Charles Taylor. Photographs of the painted portraits can be seen here.

Bradley McCallum’s endeavor to help create a dialogue and raise awareness on international justice has already been described here on Creating Rights in the context of his one year residency with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court started in 2014.

Weights and Measures will concern other series of portraiture, namely photographs and audio recording that explore issues of international justice and accountability by poetically reflecting its various actors. Weights and Measures will begin an international tour in April, 2016 and will include exhibitions in The Hague, Netherlands, Limerick, Ireland, communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, and Beijing, China before returning to the United States.

As explained on our Projects page, Creating Rights is actively supporting Bradley McCallum’s Weights and Measures project by being a partner in the Hague, the city of international justice.