Mark Bradford
1961–
Mark Bradford works across various mediums, creating paintings, sculpture, installations, video, and prints. In the mid-2000s he began to make collaged paintings that grapple with ideas of urban decay and excavation, as well as with the history of art. Bradford builds up the surfaces of these paintings with materials often found on the street, including advertising posters, billboard paper, newsprint, and permanent-wave end papers, implicitly referencing the economic livelihood of his South Central Los Angeles community and his experience working as a sign maker and hairdresser in his mother’s salon. After collaging layers of material onto the canvas, Bradford uses an industrial sander to obliterate and unearth parts of the surface—imparting an effect that is painterly, despite its distance from traditional painting. “What fascinates me about surface,” he has explained, “is the way in which paper creates depth, but at the same time it still has its singular form. It’s one complete thing on top of another. You are not mixing black and white paint.”
Bread and Circuses, measuring eleven feet high and twenty-one feet long, is a monumental composition, more akin to a wall mural. Here, Bradford carefully embedded string amid the collaged layers of found paper, suggesting curvilinear city streets, and later sanded through the material to reveal a textured surface reminiscent of a woodcut. As it explores the topography that results from the juncture between the urban and the natural, the work reads like an intricate, indecipherable map of a congested, city landscape. Building on his interest in Renaissance prints, Bradford’s articulated composition, like his earlier work, becomes a reflection on the surrounding world, here constructed through the very detritus of which that world is composed.
Introduction
Mark Bradford (born November 20, 1961) is an American visual artist. Bradford was born, lives, and works in Los Angeles and studied at the California Institute of the Arts. Recognized for his collaged painting works, which have been shown internationally, his practice also encompasses video, print, and installation. Bradford was the U.S. representative for the 2017 Venice Biennale. He was included in Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2021.
Wikidata identifier
Q16193971
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 30, 2025.
Introduction
The Los Angeles-Based painter and installation artist received a BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. He uses a characteristic method of collaging and abrading found street posters to create his most well-known works.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, conceptual artist, installation artist, painter, photographer, sculptor, video artist
ULAN identifier
500116642
Names
Mark Bradford
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 30, 2025.
