Joe Bradley

Beneath his apparent quirk and lightheartedness—made known by a playful and off-handedly cryptic series of paintings in his third solo exhibit at CANADA in 2006 and at the 2008 Whitney Biennial—there lies in Joe Bradley an energy that has largely been contained until now (his exuberant band Cheeseburger notwithstanding).

In his two simultaneous solo exhibits Human Form at CANADA (January 13 – February 21, 2011) and Mouth and Foot Paintings at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (January 8 – February 21, 2011), Joe Bradley has divided two opposite bodies of works, one which consists of flat, silhouetted images of male figures in dance formations, and one which reveals his newfound appetite for monumental expressionism, which marks a new turn in his development as a painter. In the following conversation Joe talks candidly about his life and work leading up to the recent change.

A transcript of this show is available on the Brooklyn Rail website.