Nicci Yin
Few artists have used mapping as an artistic practice to the effect that Mark Bradford has, weaving the visual and social landscapes of urban societies into the layers of his collage paintings. These paintings, along with works in sculpture and video, will be displayed at a joint exhibition held by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts beginning February 18. This exhibition is a traveling survey of Bradford’s work organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts.
Though Bradford’s two-dimensional works are abstract in nature, they tell a story. The materials he incorporates include posters, flyers, and earlier, even objects from the hair salon his mother owned. In both the materials and the visual compositions of his paintings, traces of urban life allude to the physical structure of the city as well as the intangible forces that shape relationships within the city—the often mentioned dynamics of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The works correspond to the artist’s background growing up in Los Angeles.
Bradford’s works fail to lose their meaning as he maneuvers between museum environments and social spaces: Detail, which will be displayed at YBCA, is a sculptural work made from parts of another piece by Bradford, Mithra. Whereas Mithra was created in 2008 as a public artwork in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Detail is reconstructed with a gallery-specific context in mind. Of Mithra, Bradford says he “wanted to make something social because the land itself was so social and politically charged.”
Mark Bradford will be showing at SF MoMA from February 18 to June 17 and at YBCA from February 18 to May 27.
Mark Bradford, Detail (installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts), 2009-10, plywood, found paper, adhesive (parts of Mithra reassembled for the exhibition). Courtesy of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Mark Bradford, Mithra, 2008, found paper on plywood, metal shipping containers . Courtesy of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Mark Bradford, Strawberry, 2002, photomechanical reproductions, acrylic gel medium, permanent-wave end papers, and additional mixed media on canvas. Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Mark Bradford, Corner of Desire and Piety, 2008, acrylic gel medium, cardboard paper, caulking, silkscreen ink, acrylic paint, and additional mixed media. Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
