Red Stripe #7 2016

Adam Caldwell’s Red Stripe #7 is an oil painting that confronts us with both vulnerability and constraint. The artist employs traditional oil painting techniques to render a portrait of a young woman. The red stripes, stark against the skin, are applied with visible brushstrokes, highlighting the materiality of the paint. Above her head, a thin line of barbed wire is rendered with similar precision, its sharp points a subtle, yet unsettling, presence. Caldwell's choice of oil paint, a medium often associated with classical portraiture, is disrupted by the raw, almost violent application of the red stripes. The barbed wire, too, introduces a discordant element, a symbol of restriction and conflict rendered in the delicate strokes of oil paint. Caldwell’s work challenges the viewer to consider the relationship between medium and message. In doing so, he invites a reflection on the social and political issues of our time.