ARTIST:

Joe Bradley

Untitled
Joe Bradley
Untitled
Joe Bradley

Using minimalism for its associations with high modernism, as well as for its legacy in the form of Ikea reproducibility, Bradley’s canvases proudly assert their objecthood as well as their ‘easy assemble’ irony. His simplified painterly lexicon brings together associations of mass media: tv test patterns, arcade graphics, and commercial logos, under his own brand of ‘slacker’ aesthetic. Through his retro-futuristic style, Bradley critically pokes fun at the commodification of art while simultaneously addressing the possibilities of contemporary painting.

Mystery Boga
Joe Bradley
In championing the abject, Bradley engages with the problems of painting itself. Each arrangement reveals the processes of theatricality and illusion, creating a sense of narrative and personal gesture through generic attributes of colour, line, shape, and composition. Behind their tongue in cheek parody, Bradley’s paintings resolve the detachment of hard edged abstraction with an affectionate intimacy; each work commands mediation through its understated integrity.
Trans (Alien)
Joe Bradley
Executed on cheap pre-fab canvases, and painted with intentional mediocrity, Bradley’s paintings are immediately sympathetic in their impoverished aesthetic. Towering with a commanding primitivism – alluding to both totems and obsolete computer graphics –
Bradley’s works transact on the transcendent spiritualism of monochrome painting, instead offering a brazen contemplation of unabashed dumbness.
Wolf
Joe Bradley
Bradley seamlessly merges the disparate traditions of painting’s history and consumer graphics to develop abstracted ‘figures’ which are uncannily archetypal. In Wolf, four brown canvases marred with scatological splatters function as a reductive stand in for the ravenous and beastly. Paring down pictorial representation to its most diminutive form Bradley encapsulates the essence of character and narrative, raising the logo-istic shorthand of information transaction to the eminence of high art appreciation.
Untitled
Joe Bradley
Joe Bradley’s work reconfigures the daunting spectrum of minimalist painting with an endearing sense of humility and pathos. Arranging his canvases in the shapes of absurd and clunky figures, Bradley subverts the subtle grids of Ad Reinhardt and the pantone hued planes of Ellsworth Kelly, infusing traditional formalism with cartoon humour. Through this merger of abstraction and figuration, Bradley embraces equally the non-objective ideals of 70s art and a contemporary humanist approach to high culture.
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop

    Thank you for your enquiry!

    Your message was sent and one of our Admin team will respond as soon as possible.

    If you have an urgent question, please call our front desk on 020 7811 3070.

    For more information on how we store and use your data please view our privacy policy here. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by clicking on the links below the emails we send you.

    Essential Information Before Your Visit:
    Click Plan Your Visit for full information on upcoming closures.

    Register for email updates
    Be the first to hear about the latest Saatchi Gallery exhibitions, events, offers and news