Hall 2 [12-15]

In her works, Bradford depicts how she experiences community and how it can be lived. The reference to nature, in particular her paintings depicting groups and individuals in water, testifies to her strongly holistic way of thinking, which does not see nature as being in opposition to culture, but rather understands human and non-human life as entangled.
 Throughout her life, Bradford has always been interested in people who live on the margins of social norms and build alternative communities. She was part of a strong community of artists, first in Maine, then in New York, and she understands this exchange with other artists and a circle of supporters as a key element of her practice, which she developed independently and in exchange with other artists and a strong circle of supporters.
In her new works in Hall 2, the artist recalls her time in Maine as part of a community, with colorful images showing a happy coexistence and friendship beyond supposedly socially imposed norms. These works manifest water and fluidity as central themes in Bradford’s work.
Fluidity is of essential importance to Bradford, both in terms of the themes and the color as well as to the gentle transitions between water, air and space in the compositions she approaches, as it represents the possibility of overcoming categorizations and constructions of race, class and gender. Friends Standing in Low Water (2024) [13] and By the Lighthouse (2024) [12] are exemplary of Katherine Bradford’s understanding of diverse community.
Her proximity to color field painting is similarly evident in these works; in particular, to her fellow artist Stanley Whitney, who also lives in Brooklyn and can be mentioned as an inspiration. Like Bradford’s, Whitney’s works seem to shine from within via fields of coordinated planes of color. For Bradford, color is always both the starting point and the ending point of her process, using it not only to visualize her concise style, but also to evoke moods and situations of subjective and intersubjective perception. She depicts the figurines that emerge from her imagination and her experiences, as well as from the process of painting, as individuals or several people placed in an emotional and social relationship in a group or in a community.
She always begins by experimenting with pure color on the canvas before developing forms and figurines. Working intuitively, her oeuvres are not preceded by sketches and she does not orient herself on illustrations, but paints directly from memory or imagination. Her style varies greatly: while the works at Hall 1 had a colorful density, the works at Hall 2 are closer to watercolors. A comparison could even be made to pointillist works such as Georges Seurat’s The Circus Parade (1880), or the abstract works of the great American outsider Forrest Bess, which he himself described as ​“visions.”
 

[12]
By the Lighthouse, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
182,9 x 172,72 cm
Courtesy Katherine Bradford, New York
 

[13]
Friends Standing in Low Water, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
182,9 x 152,4 cm
Courtesy Katherine Bradford, New York
 

[14]
Under Water, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
182,9 x 152,4 cm
Courtesy Katherine Bradford, New York
 

[15]
Carry Painting, Mother, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
203,2 x 172,7 cm
Courtesy Katherine Bradford, New York