Katherine Bradford — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

Text

Since the 1970s, Katherine Bradford has unwaveringly followed her own artistic path, creating works of art on a daily basis. In the process, she has established a community of like-minded artists in both Maine and New York. With formal invention and a shifting sense of figure and ground, Bradford imbues her characters, whether heroines or lovers, families or couples, businessmen or isolated individuals, all with narrative weight. In colorful scenes, painted in many transparent layers of acrylic, she conveys a light-filled quality and opens up metaphorical possibilities, deftly balancing humor, pathos and abstraction.

This reference monograph of Bradford’s work includes an essay by art critic Allie Biswas reflecting on the metaphysical nature of Bradford’s work. Moreover, the monograph includes an interview with fellow artist and writer Daniel Gerwin, a narrative biographical text by her children Laura and Arthur Bradford, a very personal insight into the artist’s life and work, and an essay by Sandro Droschl, which provides an overview of the artist’s body of work. The book presents over 100 works offering a comprehensive overview of Bradford’s oeuvre from 2015 to the present day. Particular attention is paid to her most recent series entitled “Swimmers” or the “Mother Paintings”, which reflect her own vision of motherhood and femininity.

Artists

Participating artists

Solo (selection): kaufmann repetto, Milan (2024, 2021),Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo (2024, 2022), Kunsthalle Emden (2024), Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2023), Canada, New York (2023, 2021, 2018, 2016), Campoli Presti, Paris/London (2023, 2021, 2019), Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg (2023), Portland Museum of Art (2022), Matthew Brown, Los Angeles (2022, with Sedrick Chisom), Hall Art Foundation, Reading, VT (2021), Carpenter Center for Visual Art, Harvard University, Cambridge (2021), Adams and Ollman, Portland (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), Galerie Haverkampf, Berlin (2018, 2017), Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Mailand (2017), Sperone Westwater, New York (2017), The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2017)

Shows (selection): Musée d‘Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2023), Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (2023, 2021), Kunsthaus Nürnberg (2023), Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2023, 2022), Le Consortium, Dijon (2022), Bowdoin College Museum, Brunswick (2022, 2019, 2004), Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam/New York (2021, 2019), RISD Museum, Brown University, Providence (2021), Transcend, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile (2021), Pace Gallery, New York (2019), Prospect 4, U.S. Biennial, New Orleans (2017)

Her works are amongst others in the collections of Musée d‘Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Menil Collection, Houston and the Portland Museum of Art.