The Artistic Practice of Joe Bradley
Joe Bradley is an American visual artist who was born in 1975 in Kittery, Maine. After earning a BFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999, he held his first gallery exhibition in New York. His career reached a significant milestone three years later when he had his first solo museum show at MoMA PS1. Bradley's work is characterized by casualist paintings that resemble human figures, often created from assembled canvases. He has described his own work as "intentionally shoddy" and "pathetic," a quality stemming from his use of flimsy shop-bought canvases, though he selects his colors and surface textures with care.
His practice involves a fluid visual language that moves through Abstraction, Minimalism, and the gestural mark-making of Abstract Expressionism. Bradley's paintings, drawings, and sculptures reference the "shared space" of painting and the art historical canon. Beyond the visual arts, he has been active in music as the lead singer for the American hard rock band Cheeseburger. He is currently based in New York City and Amagansett, and is married to Valentina Akerman.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Bradley's work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the globe. His solo exhibitions include:
His work has been included in the Whitney Biennial 2008 and has been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Kunstmuseum Bonn in Germany. In 2014, an abstract painting on drop cloth by the artist sold for over $1.5 million at Christie's London.
