Mark Bradford
Mark Bradford
b. 1961, Los Angeles
lives in Los Angeles
Lifelong Angeleno Mark Bradford earned a BFA and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He is best known for his textural, multimedia abstract paintings, although his practice also encompasses video and print. Bradford seeks to reveal the hidden layers of the world around us with collections of scavenged and found objects turned into large-scale collages and installations. He gleans the evidence of invisible and marginalized people (such as migrant communities), of appropriated spaces, and of underground economies and translates their stories into tangible physical forms. His practice includes using paper as paint, texture, and dimension. Bradford also incorporates such items as billboards, handbills, signs, advertising, and rope in his works. His materials are reflective of the places where these items were scavenged: advertisements for food and housing assistance, legal services, and debt relief. The finished pieces subtly mirror the lives and places of the objects’ former owners. Bradford has also become an advocate for accessibility to the arts in disadvantaged communities. He has formed several collaborations with organizations and institutions in the Los Angeles area to encourage engagement with the arts and to give access to educational and social resources to benefit the communities he includes in his practice. Bradford’s work has won him wide recognition and several accolades. Mark Bradford. Tomorrow Is Another Day was featured in the United States Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial (2017) and at the Baltimore Museum of Art (2018–19). Other recent exhibitions include Mark Bradford: Los Angeles, Long Museum, Shanghai (2019); Mark Bradford Pickett’s Charge, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2017–20); and Mark Bradford: Scorched Earth, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2015).
Mark Bradford, 150 Portrait Tone, 2017. Mixed media on canvas, 240 x 310 inches. © Mark Bradford. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joshua White.