Bradley McCallum

Bradley McCallum (born August 2, 1966) is an American conceptual artist and social activist. He is best known for his large-scale, site-specific installations made in collaboration with artist Jacqueline Tarry, with whom he has worked since 1999 in the mixed-race collaborative McCallum + Tarry.[1]

Bradley H. McCallum
Born (1966-08-02) August 2, 1966
Green Bay, WI
EducationMaster of Fine Arts in Sculpture
Alma materYale University
Notable work
Weights and Measures, Whitewash, Wade in the Water, Endurance
StyleVisual Art
Websitemccallumtarry.com

He is the Founding Director of Conjunction Arts, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that supports artists by connecting them to social justice organizations and providing fiscal sponsorship to individual artists.[2] From March 2014 to March 2015 he worked as the artist-in-residence at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, where he developed a portrait project called Weights and Measures and started the Arts Initiative for International Justice.[3][4][5] In 1998, he held a similar residency at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where he developed a project exploring police brutality.[6] He works from his studio in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

McCallum + Tarry

Since 1999, McCallum has worked with artist Jacqueline Tarry in the collaborative McCallum + Tarry.[1] He is European American and she is African American; together their work addresses social inequality in the United States, including homelessness,[7] police brutality,[8] and legacies of racial discrimination.[9][10]

Selected solo work

McCallum also continues to make solo work.

Weights and Measures, 2014-2015
Portrait of Thomas Lubanga in the series Weights and Measures

In November 2012, McCallum began creating a body of portraits depicting defendants standing trial before international courts titled Weights and Measures. He began this project in partnership with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court as the organization's year-long artist-in-residence.[5] The project consists of oil paintings portraying individuals standing trial before the International Criminal Court, as well as the ad hoc international tribunals that preceded it, such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. According to an interview with MSNBC, the paintings are monumental formal portraits, referring to a classical, 19th-century approach to portraiture.[11] They challenge viewers to reconsider the harmful influence the powerful male subjects of these portraits had on their communities.[12]

McCallum standing with William Pace, the Convener of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, in Conjunction Arts studio in Brooklyn

McCallum has completed painted portraits of Thomas Lubanga, Slobodan Milošević, Radovan Karadžić, Germain Katanga, Kang Kek Iew, Nuon Chea, William Ruto, Charles Taylor, Jean-Pierre Bemba, and Fidèle Wandu.

The Manhole Cover Project: A Gun Legacy, 1996

Before the formation of the McCallum + Tarry partnership, McCallum produced several major solo works. Among the most notable is The Manhole Cover Project, a community-based public art project commissioned by the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Childhood Injury Prevention Center of Hartford, Connecticut. The artwork explored the unique role of the gun and gun violence in the history of Hartford.[13] The city is both the site of the original manufacturing plants of the Colt family, which were important to its economy and, because of issues related to current poverty and drug use, has suffered some of the highest rates of gun-related deaths in the United States.[14] The project consists of 228 manhole covers cast from the melted metal of 11,194 guns confiscated by the Hartford police force from January 1, 1992 to July 31, 1996. McCallum emblazoned each manhole cover with the words "MADE FROM 172 LBS OF YOUR CONFISCATED GUNS" and the common epitaph "VINCIT QUI PATITUR," which roughly translated can mean either "he who perseveres is victorious" or "he who suffers conquers."[15] The juxtaposition of the declaration of ownership with the Latin phrase, which was also the Colt family motto, contrasts Hartford's collective responsibility for current gun violence with its history of gun manufacturing.[13] The complete project, which included recordings of local student testimony, was curated by James Rondeau and installed at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

Conjunction Arts

In 1989, McCallum started Conjunction Arts, a non-profit arts organization to support politically and socially engaged artists through fiscal sponsorship, professional development, and residency connections with social justice organizations.[2][16] In 2014, Conjunction Arts partnered with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court to launch the Arts Initiative for International Justice, a unique program to connect politically and socially engaged artists to leaders in the fields of policy, diplomacy, and human rights.[5]

McCallum curated the first exhibition for the Arts Initiative, a travelling group show titled Post Conflict that included work by prominent artists Ai Weiwei, Richard Mosse, Alfredo Jaar, Jenny Holzer, Adam Pendleton, Pieter Hugo, Lana Mesic, Daapo Reo, and a selection of African cartoonists by Creative Court. Kinz+Tillou Fine Arts in Brooklyn, New York hosted the exhibition from November 2014 to February 2015,[17] and Nichido Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan hosted it from March to May, 2015.[18] One critic described the traveling exhibition as bringing together artists "who challenge us to examine complex and layered political issues and prompt us to consider how these issues impact others through artwork that humanizes and transforms."[19]

Awards and residencies

Solo exhibitions (including works with Tarry)

References
  1. Dabkowski, Colin. (December 15, 2012). “Fine Burchfield Penney show features Spain Rodriguez, Jacqueline Tarry.” The Buffalo News. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  2. Kavanaugh, Ron. (April 23, 2004). “Bicycle-Reconstruction Project Examines Environmental Issues, Health, and Transportation Alternatives in the South Bronx.” Bronx Museum of the Arts. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  3. Presenters: Iyer, Seema (January 20, 2015). “The docket team tackles art and justice.” The Docket. 6:49 minutes. MSNBC. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  4. Gantheret, Fiana. (December 9, 2014). “The Art of International Justice: The CICC Arts Initiative to End Impunity.” Creating Rights. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  5. “Coalition launches Arts Initiative to enrich dialogue on global justice.” (April 8, 2014). #GlobalJustice. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  6. Firestone, David. (September 17, 1998). “PUBLIC LIVES; A Visual Artist Gives Form to Free Speech.” The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  7. Cotter, Holland. (August 24, 2005). “Posing, Speaking, Revealing.” The New York Times. Archived from the original. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  8. Dewan, Shaila. (October 3, 2000). “Police Brutality Revisited, But Not on Federal Ground.” The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  9. Youmans, Joyce. (December 29, 2008). “McCallum and Tarry: Evidence of Things Not Seen.” Burnaway. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  10. Abernathy, Jeremy. (November 6, 2008). “A Group Discussion of McCallum and Tarry’s Within Our Gates.” Archived 2017-08-19 at the Wayback Machine Burnaway. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  11. "The Docket team tackles art & justice". NBC News. 2015-01-20.
  12. Fielding, Alex. (November 22, 2014). “International Justice Meets Art through CICC’s Artist-In-Residence”. Beyond The Hague. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  13. Rondeau, James. (1996). “The Manhole Cover Project: A Gun Legacy.” Wadsworth Atheneum. Archived from the original. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  14. Connecticut Against Gun Violence. Archived 2015-05-24 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  15. McCallum, Bradley (2000), In the Public Realm: Installations by Bradley McCallum, Madison, Wisconsin: Chazen Museum of Art. p. 1, ISBN 0932900496.
  16. Conjunction Arts website. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  17. Post Conflict Archived 2015-01-13 at the Wayback Machine. Kinz + Tillou Fine Art. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  18. Post Conflict. Nichido Contemporary Art. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  19. “Post Conflict at Kinz Tillou Fine Art” Archived 2015-04-03 at the Wayback Machine (December 15, 2014). Musèe Magazine. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  20. Rossier, Mark. (July 12, 2012). “NYFA Fellows 1985-2013.” New York Foundation for the Arts. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  21. “Questions of Private and Public Memory.” Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine Tokyo Wondersite. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  22. “McColl Center Artists 2006.” Mitchell Kearney Photography. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  23. Fund History. Lambent Foundation. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  24. Biographical Notes. Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  25. Philip C. Curtis Artist-in-Residence Program. Archived 2014-12-26 at the Wayback Machine Albion College. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  26. Arts Alumni. Archived 2015-05-03 at the Wayback Machine John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  27. Editorial Staff. (February 13, 2013). “Exhibits.” The Recorder. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  28. Past Exhibitions. Galerie Nordine Zidoun. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  29. Mathis, Ranita. (October 12, 2010). “Ready to Spark Dialogue and Intrigue, ‘Evenly Yoked’ Explores Generations of Race Relations.” Archived 2017-08-19 at the Wayback Machine Inside Spelman. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  30. Gopnik, Blake. (May 16, 2010). “Bradley McCallum-Jacqueline Tarry exhibit at Baltimore's Contemporary Museum.” The Washington Post. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  31. Bradley McCallum + Jacqueline Tarry. Archived 2012-02-23 at the Wayback Machine Kiang Gallery. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  32. Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry. Archived 2015-04-26 at Archive.today Caren Golden Fine Art. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
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