MARK BRADFORD, ARTIST
“I always tell people: whatever your thing is, you just have to be in it. Jump in; you’ll figure it out.”
Mark Bradford is an American visual artist, best known for his dramatic, politically motivated abstract collages. He lives and works in Los Angeles—where he was born in 1961—and is on a continuing creative journey that’s taken him from hair salon to international exhibitions.
After high school, he obtained his hairdresser’s license and went to work at his mother’s salon. This not only exposed him to a vibrant social landscape, but inadvertently provided him with a practical mechanism that was to become a foundation of his art.
‘End papers’ were tissue-like rectangular sheets of paper used to protect hair during the perming process. Bradford realized they were also ideal to help create layers within his artworks. When wet, they become translucent, allowing color and depth to emerge. “When I was painting,” he explains, “it was a lot easier to achieve layers of color due to those qualities of the end papers.”
His early artworks were characterized by this layering process which provided the key when integrating other found materials. Maps, billboards, movie posters, comic books, and ads were all incorporated. “I thought maybe if the pulp disintegrated, a little bit of light could pass through,” he said. This approach progressed a style that is still present in his work today. “I still use water because it’s the only thing that pulls the paper apart and makes it flow like paint.”
He combines his love of abstraction with a personal perspective on American culture, referring to his work as “social abstraction” – visually and formally abstracted with a social and political context layered within.
Themes such as sexual and racial prejudice, community displacement, social discontent, and economic trauma are found and felt within his work. These themes are made explicit by the printed material, carefully selecting and combining images and phrases to construct the message. “Everything I do,” he said, “has an underlying political question.”
Bradford has created a unique creative language. Characterized by its layered construction of found materials, the conceptual complexity, the political opinion, and the frustration felt from a flawed society makes for powerful artistic statements. His work is rooted in an understanding that all materials and techniques are embedded with meaning that precedes any artistic utility and use. His work exemplifies that often overused phrase, greater than the sum of its parts, and he kicks a powerful message into the cultural arena, agitating for change, or at the very least, raising awareness.
“Often culture gets stuck in static, traditional narratives. Contemporary ideas give culture elasticity, flexibility, which is always a breath of fresh air.”
HAPPENING
| Friday, July 28, 8:30–9:30am / online Wednesday, August 2, 8–9am / in gallery YOGA: JOURNEY TO JOY With Lees Yunits Benefit from stretching, breathing and meditating. PLEASE NOTE, YOGA IS ON WEDNESDAYS ONLY THROUGHOUT AUGUST. Single class – $15, six classes – $75 |