Visual art can be a powerful tool to create awareness and change in the face of both national and international human rights abuses. BAMPFA has a long history of art and film exhibitions addressing a broad spectrum of social justice issues, and now we have teamed up with the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law to celebrate their twentieth anniversary with a juried exhibition of artworks by University of California students. Envisioning Human Rights: The Next Generation includes paintings, photographs, and prints by emerging artist/activists from across the state, addressing critical human rights issues. In conjunction with this juried exhibition, we are also presenting a selection of works from the Abu Ghraib series by world-renowned artist Fernando Botero that the artist generously donated to BAMPFA in recognition of Berkeley's historic role in the arena of human rights. Four paintings from the same series are also on view at Boalt Hall. A related invitational exhibition, featuring works by internationally acclaimed human rights photographers who have worked with the Human Rights Center over the past two decades, will be presented at the Boalt Law Gallery in fall 2014.
