ABOUT CHANNEL DRAW

Drawing as a tool for journalism, human rights and freedom of expression.

Channel Draw is an independent project founded by artist and activist Gianluca Costantini. Through drawing, visual journalism and long-form investigations, it documents human rights violations, political repression, censorship, conflicts and threats to freedom of expression around the world.

For decades, these drawings have circulated freely across borders — published by newspapers and magazines, used by human rights organizations, carried in demonstrations and campaigns, and shared by people whose stories deserve to be seen.

Channel Draw believes that images can bear witness. The drawings remain free to circulate because their purpose is to reach people. Supporting Channel Draw helps make this independent work possible and gives members access to complete investigations, the archive, high-resolution drawings and additional materials.

€5/month · €50/year

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ABOUT GIANLUCA COSTANTINI

Gianluca Costantini is an Italian artist, activist and visual journalist whose work has focused for more than two decades on human rights, freedom of expression, political repression and international conflicts. Through drawing, he documents people and stories that risk disappearing from public attention, transforming portraiture into a tool for journalism, testimony and civic action.

His drawings have accompanied campaigns for political prisoners, journalists, activists and victims of human rights violations around the world. They have circulated in newspapers and magazines, international organizations, exhibitions, demonstrations and public campaigns. His recent work has focused particularly on press freedom and journalists in Gaza, political prisoners, migration and the defence of freedom of expression.

His work has often intersected directly with censorship and political repression. The Turkish authorities blocked Channel Draw and accused Costantini of spreading terrorist propaganda because of his drawings and online activity. Despite these restrictions, he has continued to document human rights violations and attacks on freedom of expression in Turkey, as well as repression, imprisonment and censorship in countries around the world.

Costantini collaborates with human rights and civil society organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), ActionAid, Amnesty International and SOS Méditerranée. His collaboration with SOS Méditerranée has included The Possible Life, a travelling exhibition of drawings devoted to migration, integration and sea rescue that was also hosted aboard the Ocean Viking.

His drawings have been presented at major international human rights and cultural events, including the FIFDH – International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London, and have appeared in exhibitions and public actions in cities including New York, Washington, Atlanta, Berlin, Geneva, Paris, London, Rome and Bologna.

In 2019, Amnesty International Italia awarded him the Art and Human Rights Award for his commitment to human rights through drawing. In 2025, the FIFDH in Geneva presented In the Crosshairs of Memory, an exhibition devoted to his portraits of victims, journalists and activists. The same year, the major exhibition Ceasefire 2005–2025: Twenty Years of Battles for Human Rights was presented at Palazzo d’Accursio in Bologna, retracing two decades of art, activism and campaigns for human rights.

Costantini has published drawings, comics and visual journalism in Italian and international media including Corriere della Sera, Domani, Internazionale, Le Monde Diplomatique, Courrier International, The New Arab, Words Without Borders, Mekong Review and World War 3 Illustrated, and has collaborated with international media and cultural platforms including CNN and ABC Australia.

He has also worked extensively with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Costantini illustrated Ai Weiwei’s first graphic memoir, Zodiac, created with Elettra Stamboulis and published in English by Ten Speed Press / Penguin Random House. Structured around the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, the book explores Ai Weiwei’s life, art, political thought and lifelong defence of freedom of expression.

His recent publications also include Patrick Zaki: An Egyptian Story, Libya, Julian Assange: From Hacker Ethics to WikiLeaks and Diario segreto di Pasolini. A completely renewed edition of Diario segreto di Pasolini, created with Elettra Stamboulis, was published by Altreconomia in 2025 to mark fifty years since Pier Paolo Pasolini’s death.

His recent work is also documented through the annual Channel Draw publications Active Art Yearbook 2024 and Active Art Yearbook 2025, which bring together drawings, portraits, exhibitions and visual projects devoted to contemporary political and social struggles.

Costantini teaches Comic Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. He is the founder of Channel Draw, his independent platform for drawing, visual journalism and long-form documentation of human rights, political repression and freedom of expression.

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Selected collaborations list