Joe Bradley

Joe Bradley has a diverse art practice deeply rooted in painting. His work defies easy categorization as he deftly moves across artistic movements and modes, weaving together personal and art historical references in his irreverent, self-assured style.

Bradley usually creates his improvisational, mixed-media canvases unprimed and unstretched on his studio floor, leading the finished paintings to bear the  traces of the artistic process they underwent. Unconventional materials surface in the finished works, some even bearing seams where fragments of canvas have been stitched together in a collage-like manner. Figuration features to  varying degrees across Bradley’s oeuvre, employing both geometric and organic forms, sometimes iconography, while other times engaging in a more minimalist painting tradition with monochrome swaths of color. Swaying always between earnestness and irony in his expression, Bradley continually provides a unique take on abstract painting and Western artistic traditions.