Exhibition, Films, Talks & Events

Garrett Bradley

Revolutions

14 June — 7 September 2025

Garrett Bradley and Arthur Jafa, a Negro, a Lim-O (still), 2022. Two-channel video (color, sound); 27:31 minutes. Courtesy the artists, Lisson Gallery, Gladstone Gallery, and Sprüth Magers.

Garrett Bradley explores how images help shape our view of the world. She is particularly interested in the ways America is represented through visual culture. Spanning narrative, documentary, and experimental forms of filmmaking, this exhibition reflects the artist’s turn towards abstraction and the increasingly sculptural nature of her work.

Eye Filmmuseum presents the first European solo museum exhibition by American artist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Garrett Bradley. The exhibition invites visitors into her world: a rich blend of engagement and artistic experimentation, in which she critically examines (film) history and image-making from a contemporary perspective. In 2023, Bradley was awarded the Eye Art & Film Prize.

Garrett Bradley, AKA (still), 2019. Single channel video (color, sound); 8:17 minutes. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.

Garrett Bradley, America (still), 2019. Multi-channel video installation; 35mm film transferred to HD video (black and white, sound); 23:55 minutes. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.

Bradley invites us to take a step back and consider the following question: what are we actually looking at? In doing so, she makes the viewer aware of the pitfalls of representation and unpacks the mechanisms that influence how we perceive ourselves and others.

The exhibition Revolutions takes its title from the various forms of revolution present in Garrett Bradley’s work. A revolution can refer to a political shift in power, but also to a cycle, like the Earth rotating on its axis as the days pass. Bradley’s work reveals the revolutionary potential of the everyday – the change that small acts of resistance can bring about.

Garrett Bradley and Arthur Jafa, a Negro, a Lim-O (still), 2022. Two-channel video (color, sound); 27:31 minutes. Courtesy the artists, Lisson Gallery, Gladstone Gallery, and Sprüth Magers.

Garrett Bradley, America (still), 2019. Multi-channel video installation; 35mm film transferred to HD video (black and white, sound); 23:55 minutes. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.

Bregtje van der Haak, director Eye Filmmuseum: “Garrett Bradley creates courageous, visually compelling work, which takes on themes including racism and exclusion with exceptional energy. Her work takes shape through a blend of diverse archival media. Her (documentary) films and installations refer to topics including the history of American citizens, the struggle for social justice and the political history of the United States, and make in-depth explorations of human emotions such as rage and sorrow.”

poster Garrett Bradley – Revolutions

Films, Talks & Events

The accompanying film programme will feature nearly all of Bradley’s work, including the Oscar-nominated documentary Time (2020), and her award-winning short film Alone (2017). Several Eye on Art specials will place Bradley’s oeuvre in context. Finally, films that have inspired her work will also be screened.

About Garrett Bradley

Garrett Bradley is an American artist, educator, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work spans narrative, documentary, and experimental modes of filmmaking to address themes such as race, class, familial relationships and sociopolitical histories within the United States. Bradley lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 2020, Bradley presented her debut feature-length documentary, Time, which was nominated for more than fifty awards—including an Oscar—and won twenty, including the 2020 Peabody Award and the Best Director Award in the US Documentary Competition category at that year’s Sundance Film Festival, making her the first Black woman to receive the award in the history of the festival.

Bradley’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2020); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2019); the Momentary, Crystal Bridges, Arkansas (2021); the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh (2022); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2022). Her work is celebrated in collections worldwide.

Bradley co-founded Creative Council, an artist-led afterschool programme aimed at developing strong college art portfolios for students attending public high schools in New Orleans. Creative Council was supported and facilitated through the New Orleans Video Access Center, (NOVAC).

Eye Art & Film Prize

Bradley was awarded the Eye Art & Film Prize in 2023. Since 2015, this prize has been awarded annually to an artist or filmmaker who is building an exceptional body of work and making an outstanding contribution to new developments at the intersection of visual art and film. Since 2023, the Eye Prize has been supported by Ammodo.

Garrett Bradley – Revolutions is organised by Eye Filmmuseum in close collaboration with Rebecca Matalon, Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

Garrett Bradley, Safe (still), 2022. Three-channel video (color, sound); continuous duration. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.

Garrett Bradley, Safe (still), 2022. Three-channel video (colour, sound); continuous duration. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication that brings together a comprehensive visual section with stills from the featured projects, alongside a conversation between artist Garrett Bradley and Rebecca Matalon, Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. The publication also includes an essay by Vincent van Velsen, Head of Exhibitions at Eye. Designed by Bardhi Haliti, it is a co-publication of Eye Filmmuseum and nai010 publishers, Rotterdam.

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