Adrian L. Burrell is an Oakland-based multimedia artist, documentary filmmaker, and U.S. Marine Corps veteran whose photography, film, and installation work examines race, displacement, police violence, and the long afterlife of slavery in America. A third-generation Oaklander with family roots tracing back to enslavement in the 1760s, he is also known outside the art world for a $300,000 excessive force settlement he won against the City of Vallejo, California, after a police officer tackled him for filming a traffic stop from his own porch.
The Vallejo Porch Incident and $300,000 Settlement
On January 22, 2019, Burrell was standing on his porch on the 100 block of Bryon Street in Vallejo when Vallejo Police Officer David McLaughlin conducted a traffic stop involving Burrell’s cousin, Michael Walton.1BNCL Law. Justice for Adrian Burrell From roughly 20 to 30 feet away, Burrell began recording the encounter on his phone. According to his lawsuit, McLaughlin pointed a gun at Walton and then ordered Burrell to go inside his home. Burrell, on his own property, refused. McLaughlin approached the porch, grabbed him, and threw him into a wall, slamming his head against a wooden pillar.2Reason. California City Pays $300,000 to Marine Veteran Tackled for Filming a Cop From His Porch Burrell sustained a concussion, an eye injury, and bruises. He was arrested and charged with resisting.3Criminal Legal News. Abusive Cop in Vallejo, California Has Cost Taxpayers More Than $500,000 in Settlements
Burrell filed a government tort claim and then a lawsuit. In November 2022, Vallejo agreed to pay $300,000 to settle the case.4Vallejo Sun. Vallejo to Pay $300K to Man Tackled by Police Officer While Filming 2019 Traffic Stop He was represented by attorney Melissa Nold.5Times-Herald. Vallejo Makes Settlement With Burrell for $300,000 After the settlement was announced, Burrell said he intended to use the money to seed a nonprofit dedicated to assisting families affected by police violence.3Criminal Legal News. Abusive Cop in Vallejo, California Has Cost Taxpayers More Than $500,000 in Settlements
Officer David McLaughlin’s Record
The officer at the center of the case had a documented history. McLaughlin joined the Vallejo Police Department in 2014 after working for the Oakland Police Department, and he was involved in two officer-involved shootings as a Vallejo officer.5Times-Herald. Vallejo Makes Settlement With Burrell for $300,000 In an August 2018 off-duty incident, McLaughlin held a man named Santiago Hutchins at gunpoint in a Walnut Creek parking lot; on-duty officers then restrained Hutchins while McLaughlin punched and elbowed him, according to the victim’s legal claim. That case settled for $270,698.3Criminal Legal News. Abusive Cop in Vallejo, California Has Cost Taxpayers More Than $500,000 in Settlements By early 2023, McLaughlin’s conduct had cost Vallejo taxpayers more than half a million dollars in settlements.
McLaughlin was also connected to the Vallejo Police Department’s badge-bending practice, in which officers’ badges were bent to mark officer-involved shootings. An investigation by former Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano found that then-Officer Kent Tribble bent McLaughlin’s badge at a bar in 2016 following a shooting in which McLaughlin and another officer fired at a moving vehicle. McLaughlin told investigators the bending was done “against his will” and that he bent his badge back to its original shape.6Vallejo Sun. Vallejo Releases Investigation Into Police Badge-Bending Five Years After Its Completion Giordano characterized McLaughlin as a “victim” of the practice and exonerated him. McLaughlin faced no formal discipline despite never reporting the incident to superiors. In a statement after his settlement, Burrell referred to the scandal directly, saying he “was assaulted by a police officer who participated in blood rituals, the bending of badges to celebrate murders of Black and Brown folks.”2Reason. California City Pays $300,000 to Marine Veteran Tackled for Filming a Cop From His Porch
Oakland Roots and Marine Corps Service
Burrell grew up in Oakland, where his family has lived for three generations. He has traced his lineage back to ancestors enslaved in the 1760s, through sharecropping, the Great Migration, and recurring encounters with the criminal legal system. He has said that every member of his family except his sister has faced incarceration or confrontations with the state.7Southern Cultures. Looking for Abolition
He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2008 to 2012 and was honorably discharged after four years.8NBC Bay Area. Marine Veteran Accuses Vallejo Officer of Assault for Filming a Traffic Stop9San Francisco Chronicle. Police Investigate Video of Alleged Assault He has noted that he still carries injuries from his time in the military. After leaving the Marines, he earned a BFA in film from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA in documentary film from Stanford University.10Stanford IDA. Meet IDA’s Visiting Artist Adrian L. Burrell
Artistic Practice
Burrell describes himself as a “light worker” who uses photography, film, and installation to spotlight self-determination, structural change, and what he calls Black communal healing.7Southern Cultures. Looking for Abolition His projects often draw on his family’s own archives, combining personal correspondence, home videos, and family album photographs with new images and speculative narratives.
Mama’s Babies (2013, ongoing) is a multimedia installation chronicling his ancestors’ experiences from slavery through the Great Migration, the crack era, and present-day gentrification. AB392 (2019) references the California Act to Save Lives, which changed the legal standard for police use of deadly force, and portrays families who advocated for the law’s passage, including a portrait of Stephon Clark’s grandmother.7Southern Cultures. Looking for Abolition
It’s After the End of the World, Don’t You Know That Yet? (2020) is a photography series commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art during the pandemic. It documents Oakland storefront murals and signage alongside portraits of Burrell’s family members.11Jenkins Johnson Gallery. Adrian Burrell The series entered SFMOMA’s permanent collection.12Stanford Art. Adrian L. Burrell Awarded 2024 Rainin Arts Fellowship
The Game God(s) (2021), Burrell’s Stanford MFA thesis film, was later featured by The New Yorker in a piece titled “Shaking the Foundations of the American Dream.” The film links modern Black life to historical violence including the 1923 Rosewood massacre, and Burrell has said it aims to “trouble the archive” without offering “simple endings.”13The New Yorker. Shaking the Foundations of the American Dream14Stanford Documentary Film. Adrian Burrell’s Thesis Film Featured in The New Yorker
His first monograph, Sugarcane and Lightning (Minor Matters, 2023), is a 144-page hardcover containing 120 images alongside his writing, found letters, family album pages, and home video stills. He describes it as a “mixtape of black life and American history from a familial perspective.”15Photo Alliance. Adrian L. Burrell in Conversation With Luke Williams
In 2021, Burrell co-authored an essay and image series with scholar Tiffany E. Barber called “Looking for Abolition,” published in the “Abolitionist South” issue of Southern Cultures. The work documents families affected by state-sanctioned violence and considers where abolition might be imagined and inhabited, drawing on Robin D.G. Kelley’s “freedom dreams” and Christina Sharpe’s “wake work.”7Southern Cultures. Looking for Abolition16Tiffany E. Barber. Looking for Abolition
Recent Exhibitions, Awards, and Teaching
Venus Blues (October–December 2023, 1201 Minnesota Street, San Francisco) was a solo exhibition built around a site-specific installation inspired by the House of Slaves and its Door of No Return in Senegal. Burrell used sugarcane as a recurring sculptural material and incorporated family letters and portraits.17Minnesota Street Project. Adrian L. Burrell: Venus Blues
In 2025, his work appeared in two significant group shows. Black Spaces: Reclaim and Remain at the Oakland Museum of California (July 2025 to March 2026) features a large-scale Burrell installation of a tree constructed from bottles and television screens playing home videos, plus collages juxtaposing West Oakland demolition footage with the American flag.18Oakland Museum of California. Oakland Museum of California Announces Black Spaces: Reclaim and Remain19Oakland Museum of California. Black Spaces: Reclaim and Remain Black Gold: Stories Untold (June–October 2025) at Fort Point National Historic Site, organized by the FOR-SITE Foundation, gathered 17 artists and collectives reflecting on African American life in California from the Gold Rush through Reconstruction.20The Art Newspaper. For-Site Exhibition at Fort Point, San Francisco: Black Gold21Parks Conservancy. Black Gold: Stories Untold In 2026, he took part in the FotoFest Biennial group show “Global Visions – FotoFest at 40” in Houston.22Haines Gallery. Adrian Burrell
Burrell received the 2024 Rainin Arts Fellowship, an unrestricted $100,000 grant administered by United States Artists through the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.12Stanford Art. Adrian L. Burrell Awarded 2024 Rainin Arts Fellowship Earlier in 2024, he was selected for TheGrio’s Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship.23KQED. Rainin Grants Awarded to Bay Area Artists He received a 2022 SFFILM Rainin Grant to develop a narrative feature called Cousins, about three East Oakland children on an adventure after their favorite cousin escapes house arrest,24SFFILM. Meet the 2022 SFFILM FilmHouse Residents and in 2023 was awarded a Black Freedom Fellowship in Salvador, Brazil.22Haines Gallery. Adrian Burrell
At Stanford, he served as the 2022 Visiting Artist for the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, teaching an undergraduate course called “Still Waters Run Deep, Troubling The Archive with filmmaking and photography” through the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and African and African American Studies departments.10Stanford IDA. Meet IDA’s Visiting Artist Adrian L. Burrell He continues to live and work in Oakland and is represented by Haines Gallery and Jenkins Johnson Gallery.