Artist: Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

Galerie Lelong, New York, presents a solo exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum entitled Parabellum, marking the artist’s second at the gallery. Deriving its title from the Latin adage “Si vis pacem, para bellum”—meaning “if you seek peace, prepare for war”—the exhibition unfolds as individual scenes in a broader narrative. Sunstrum depicts life during wartime through intimate, everyday moments: bathing, training, preparing. Her works underscore the disquieting persistence of routine amid conflict. By turning away from spectacle, she reveals this uneasy coexistence, highlighting the small acts of intimacy and connection that endure even under the shadow of war.

As in much of Sunstrum’s multidisciplinary practice, the works comprising Parabellum draw inspiration from a wide range of references across fields—including film, literature, art, as well as her personal history. Engaging the tradition of academic painting as a vehicle for historic record, Sunstrum invokes and subverts the genre, interrogating mechanisms through which power is constructed. Her works are populated by a cast of women, prompting consideration of how information and control would be bartered in a gendered space, while offering glimpses into the multifaceted experiences of feminine friendship and camaraderie. In training and battlefield scenes, they form a united front; in depictions of laundering, grooming, and relaxation, tenderness blends with palpable tension as hierarchies between the women are implied. Sunstrum transforms the war painting into a meditation on intimacy, shifting its focus from heroism to the layered bonds of women in moments of both strength and vulnerability.

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, painting, installation and animation. Her work emerges from a critical investigation of historical systems of power. The figures and stories in her work stand in resistance to the legacies of these power systems that continue to be used as tools of oppression, exploitation, injustice, and violence. Sunstrum’s works make reference to literature, film, theatre, and other forms of storytelling to build an ever-expanding narrative. These ongoing sagas unfold within terrains that appear simultaneously futuristic and ancient: a patchwork of remembered landscapes from her upbringing in places such as Botswana, Canada, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Malawi, South Africa, America, and others. The characters in her work stand as a collective: a nebulous cast in constant flux amidst ever slipping and insufficient notions of self-hood and belonging.