Foreword by Janne Sirén. Text by Cathleen Chaffee, Dan Nadel, Kim Conaty. Interview by Carroll Dunham.
A midcareer survey of paintings by the popular stylistic chameleon
American painter Joe Bradley has distinguished himself among the artists of his generation with his mutable approach to art-making. With minimal fuss, Bradley works in series, picking up and discarding styles and oscillating between abstraction and figuration as it suits him. “A retrospective of his work would look like a group show,” wrote dealer and collector Kenny Schachter. Bradley’s first large-scale North American exhibition supports this observation: he is shown moving from expressionistic canvases that record the detritus and spontaneity of the studio environment to subtly figurative send-ups of Minimalist painting, then to starkly primitivistic glyphs drawn in grease pencil on unprimed canvas, followed by modular aluminum sculptures paired with textual directives. This richly illustrated catalog, published to accompany Bradley’s midcareer survey organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, presents the full range of Bradley’s unique approach to language, abstraction and the evolutions of style. Joe Bradley includes reproductions of all works in the exhibition—some 30 paintings, 8 sculptures and 30 drawings—as well as an introductory essay by exhibition organizer Cathleen Chaffee, new scholarly essays, an interview with the artist and an exhibition history.
One of the standard-bearers of the polarizing, hard-to-categorize group of contemporary painters that includes such artists as Mark Grotjahn, Nicole Eisenmann, Richard Aldrich, Josh Smith and Michael Williams, Joe Bradley (born 1975) is widely known for his bright abstract paintings and glyph-like drawings.
"Mother and Child" (2016) is reproduced from 'Joe Bradley.'
STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely.
FROM THE BOOK
Excerpt from "Joe Bradley: Use the Right Tool for the Job" by Cathleen Chaffee
Throughout his career, Joe Bradley has inspired many a double take—“This is a Joe Bradley?” viewers have exclaimed in museums, art fairs, galleries, and collectors’ homes. Even dedicated fans of his work have inevitably faltered at one or another of his forking paths over the past twenty years, while Bradley, on the other hand, shifts gears without pause: from starkly minimalist to gestural abstract paintings with stops in between, from discomfiting assemblage sculptures to boldly graphic silkscreens, and from jagged, sometimes comic drawings to obdurate geometric sculptures.
"East Coker" (2013) is reproduced from the Albright-Knox's superb new exhibition catalog, published to accompany the major mid-career retrospective that opened this weekend in Buffalo. "I think that time moves slower in painting," Bradley is quoted. "And maybe that accounts for a lot of the anxiety around painting in the last forty or fifty years. You have the twentieth century wrapping up and everything is moving at this breakneck speed? And then, painting is still walking. It's just a very human activity that takes time." continue to blog
“Veitch” (2015) is reproduced from Joe Bradley, published to accompany the artist’s first major American museum retrospective, now on view at the Albright-Knox. In the published interview, painter Carroll Dunham says, “Well, the paintings you’ve been working on in the most recent chapter, let’s say, have been… large, scruffy-looking oil paintings, big blocks of color. I know you’ve said to me before that you do see subjects in them, but it isn’t necessarily apparent what these subjects are. There seems to be this sort of physical search going on, like you’re digging around in the painting to find it.” Bradley responds, “The most successful paintings, to my mind, feel ‘found,’ as if someone else had painted them. To me, this signals that the painting has a life or personality of its own. It achieves a kind of independence; I don’t have to stand next to it. I don’t have to work on it anymore. It can go out into the world and speak for itself.” continue to blog
Thursday, June 29, from 7-8PM, Spoonbill & Sugartown and ARTBOOK | D.A.P. invite you to join Joe Bradley for a book signing and drinks to celebrate the release of his new monograph from Albright-Knox and D.A.P. Join us at Spoonbill's new Montrose Avenue location! continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 12 in. / 208 pgs / 100 color / 10 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $67.5 GBP £45.00 ISBN: 9781887457224 PUBLISHER: Albright-Knox Art Gallery/D.A.P. AVAILABLE: 7/25/2017 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Albright-Knox Art Gallery/D.A.P.. Foreword by Janne Sirén. Text by Cathleen Chaffee, Dan Nadel, Kim Conaty. Interview by Carroll Dunham.
A midcareer survey of paintings by the popular stylistic chameleon
American painter Joe Bradley has distinguished himself among the artists of his generation with his mutable approach to art-making. With minimal fuss, Bradley works in series, picking up and discarding styles and oscillating between abstraction and figuration as it suits him. “A retrospective of his work would look like a group show,” wrote dealer and collector Kenny Schachter. Bradley’s first large-scale North American exhibition supports this observation: he is shown moving from expressionistic canvases that record the detritus and spontaneity of the studio environment to subtly figurative send-ups of Minimalist painting, then to starkly primitivistic glyphs drawn in grease pencil on unprimed canvas, followed by modular aluminum sculptures paired with textual directives.
This richly illustrated catalog, published to accompany Bradley’s midcareer survey organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, presents the full range of Bradley’s unique approach to language, abstraction and the evolutions of style. Joe Bradley includes reproductions of all works in the exhibition—some 30 paintings, 8 sculptures and 30 drawings—as well as an introductory essay by exhibition organizer Cathleen Chaffee, new scholarly essays, an interview with the artist and an exhibition history.
One of the standard-bearers of the polarizing, hard-to-categorize group of contemporary painters that includes such artists as Mark Grotjahn, Nicole Eisenmann, Richard Aldrich, Josh Smith and Michael Williams, Joe Bradley (born 1975) is widely known for his bright abstract paintings and glyph-like drawings.
