NYAB Event - William Bradley “I’ll Meet You There”

William Bradley “I’ll Meet You There”

Galerie Richard

[Image: William Bradley "Candy" (2015) oil on canvas 79 x 69 in.]

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Galerie Richard presents British artist William Bradley’s I’ll Meet You There, the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery in New York, featuring ten new large paintings on canvas made this year in Los Angeles, which will surprise the audience by their new ranges of colors inspired by the colors in this city.

London-based William Bradley is taking on his heroes of American Abstract Expressionism by challenging their use of automation and spontaneity. His work begins with small abstract gestural watercolors. They are precisely composed and each has a specific range of colors. The artist then scans them, and manipulates the colors by saturating and contrasting them. These resolved designs are then meticulously repainted in oil on canvas. His work can be described as “abstract art about abstract art” with an underlying concept that explores the communicative disconnect between artist and viewer that is specific to the pure abstract language. Bradley constructs a language of references or quotes from mostly Abstract Expressionists including Motherwell, Still, Gottlieb, De Kooning, while maintaining his own distinctive approach. He deliberately destroys the usual preconceived connection between the visual language and the processes involved.

Bradley does not intend for his paintings to be interpreted as works of Abstract Expressionism. Instead, he exploits characteristics of the style in order to expose the contextual limitations. Thus, the paintings act to classify the artistic movement as a brand and an exhausted academism. The Modern concept is refreshed in these works through a contemporary portrayal. Although initially intuitive, gestural strokes are instead consciously transcribed patterns.

What Bradley proposes is a painted depiction of painting codes pertaining to abstract expressionism, early pop art but also generic painting. The visual signifiers, whether taken from high art or mundane reference, are simply used as visual or memorial rituals entering the elaboration of another artistic lexicon. Therefore, Bradley could be considered a conceptual artist. His work refers now to Ad Reinhardt, Blinky Palermo, Daniel Buren, and to a recent generation that re-infuses conceptual strategy to painting.

William Bradley graduated with a masters degree from Wimbledon College of the University of the Arts London in 2008, and has been selected for FutureMap 08 and the Catlin Art Prize in 2009 and 2011. His works are included in many renowned private collections throughout the United States such as the Hort Family Collection, collections within Europe, and in the public collections of the University of the Arts London and the David Roberts Arts Foundation.