“Hamilton, History, Lincoln and Paint”, is John Bradford’s first solo exhibition at the Anna Zorina Gallery. The show features the artist’s latest paintings that offer his contemporary take on historical subjects.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

John Bradford:

“I am employing violent scraping, palette knifing, dabbing, dripping, reducing, tearing apart, cutting through, and building up so the paint overwhelms with something very specific, yet distantly remembered from somewhere else. This process of abstracting and excavating these oft–told American histories simultaneously asserts my formal, absolute control of the surface while allowing me to retreat from the field”.

John Bradford “Constitutional Convention” 60×78 acrylic and oil on canvas, 2018

This unbridled exploration can be seen in Publication of the Declaration and Abraham Speaking to the People at Gettysburg with their highly original use of Jean Paul Riopelle-like textured fields of paint deftly applied in a specific narrative context as means of capturing the deeply complex, often conflicting interactions in the psychology of a crowd. The sheer plasticity and expressionist aggression of Bradford’s negative spaces create “significant narrative gestures” throughout the pictorial surface to celebrate something entirely new:  field painting of history.

John-Bradford “Lincoln Addressing the People at Gettysburg” 48×60 acrylic and oil on canvas, 2017

The repertoire of techniques employed in these various historical paintings encompasses virtually the entire modernist lexicon and testifies to a painting life of unrelenting experimentation and invention. The magic is that a wide range of subjects, treated in surprisingly different ways, is so clearly the vision of a singular sensibility still committed to finding relevancy in our so tenuously shared national narrative.

John Bradford “Lincoln Writing the Emancipation Proclamation” 48×60 acrylic and oil on canvas, 2017

ABOUT THE ARTIST

JOHN BRADFORD (b. 1949, Wilmington, Delaware) received his BFA from Cooper Union in 1971 and MFA from Yale University School of Art in 1979. He is the 2011 recipient of prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Painting. John Bradford’s work has been reviewed in the New York Times, ArtNews, Village Voice, the Jewish Press and Hudson Review.

John Bradford
“Hamilton, History, Lincoln and Paint”
March 29 – May 5, 2018
Anna Zorina Gallery
New York City, NY

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

John Bradford “Publication of the Declaration” 48×60 acrylic and oil on canvas, 2017

Unfinished maple floating frames

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 120, 124, 121
Type: Floating frame
Wood & Finish: Unfinished maple
Purchase Option: Unjoined wood frame cut to size with wedges
Framing Advice: joining frames
Framing Advice: fitting floater frames

The Blue Fold

In the exhibition, and book of the same name, Matthew and Julie Chase-Daniel share the art and poetry they produced during a month-long artist residency on Loggerhead Key that was facilitated by the National Parks Arts Foundation, in cooperation with the National Park Service ‘Volunteers in the Parks’ program.

Seventy miles west of Key West in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Loggerhead Key is located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, created in 1975 to protect the third largest coral barrier reef system in the world. It is known for a decommissioned brick lighthouse built in 1858, light keeper’s brick cottage, small bunkhouse, and the ruins of a significant marine biology laboratory operated by the Carnegie Institute from 1904-1939.

While open to day visitors interested in the coral reef, nearby shipwrecks, and lighthouse, overnight stays are strictly limited to a small number of park service employees, interns, and volunteers.  Sustained effort and investment are required to maintain and repair the buildings & systems, and to monitor and restore the coral and other marine life, including endangered turtles and birds.

The month-long arts residency provides uninterrupted time to work and immersion in a natural environment free from many of the distractions of twenty-first century life. Power is produced by photovoltaic panels and water by a reverse-osmosis desalination system. The island has no telephone, cell phone or internet service.

Matthew and Julie Chase-Daniel arrived on September 1, but were evacuated less than a week later due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Irma. On September 20, they returned to the island, and remained there, alone and uninterrupted until October 10.

The Blue Fold explores perspectives, human and natural, of the island, climate change, sea level rise, coral reefs, Hurricane Irma, and disaster evacuation & recovery, through images, poetry and prose.

Matthew Chase-Daniel, Gorgonians, photography, 30 x 30 inches, archival pigment print on watercolor paper, 2017 from The Blue Fold series.

Matthew Chase-Daniel, Coconuts, photography, 30 x 30 inches, archival pigment print on watercolor paper, 2017 from The Blue Fold series

Matthew Chase-Daniel, Coconut Stems, photography, 30 x 30 inches, archival pigment print on watercolor paper, 2017 from The Blue Fold series

Matthew Chase-Daniel, Callyspongia Vaginalis, photography, 30 x 30 inches, archival pigment print on watercolor paper, 2017 from The Blue Fold series

About the artist

Matthew Chase-Daniel (né Chase) was born in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1965 and lived in New York City in the1960s.  He later raised tadpoles, minnows, and a raccoon, learned to fall off a horse, and hunt morels, wild violets, and rainbow trout in the Berkshire Mountains. In the mid and late 1980s, Chase-Daniel spent three years at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York (B.A.), and three years in Paris, France, where he studied cultural anthropology, photography, and ethnographic film production (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes & Sorbonne). Since 1989, he has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, renovating old houses, growing green chard, and making family and art.

His photography and sculpture have been exhibited across the U.S. and in Europe. He is represented in Santa Monica, California by Craig Krull Gallery.

He is the co-founder, co-owner, and co-curator of Axle Contemporary, a mobile gallery of art based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Exhibition
The Blue Fold
April 5 ­– June 5, 2018
Eco-Discovery Center
Key West, Florida
Opening reception: April 5, 6pm

The Book Fold
The Blue
Explorations at Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas National Park
Matthew & Julie Chase-Daniel
Paperback, 116 pages
Axle Contemporary Press
2018, 8.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN: 0996399143

Framing Specifications

114 unfinished maple

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Profile: 114
Type: Thin Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: unfinished maple
Purchasing Option: cut to size with wedges
plastic spacer: 1/8″ clear econospace
Framing Advice: joining gallery frames

Brian Dailey’s towering, multi – screen video installation WORDS — the creative summation of an odyssey that took him to nearly ninety countries over the course of six years — is the artist’s investigation into the impact of globalization on the interrelation between language, culture, and environment. While offering a contemporary turn on primordial stories such as the Tower of Babel, the kaleidoscopic, cacophonous, and mesmerizing structure is rooted in the present and seeks to elucidate through this inventive vehicle how languages, and the words upon which they are built, shape our global realities. A powerful visual expression of the challenges faced in communicating across linguistic boundaries and national borders in today’s world , WORDS also reveals the captivating dynamism of humanity in the expressive, physical presence of the range of personalities who come to life on the flickering screens.

Against the backdrop of an international geopolitical landscape undergoing tumultuous and historic changes, Dailey created a list of thirteen words that spoke to larger philosophical concerns facing humanity and found international resonance: Peace, war, love, environment, freedom, religion, democracy, government, happiness, socialism, capitalism, future, and United States. He visited public and private venues on all seven continents, set up his camera and green – screen backdrop in various locales, and invited passersby to be interviewed. A local facilitator presented each of the thirteen words in the participants’ native language and invited them to express — in a single word —the first impression each of the nouns evoked.

Brian Dailey “WAR”, 2018 Inkjet on Photo Museum Etching paper 18 x 22 in

Most frequent responses from around the world: Peace, Death, Destruction

Brian Dailey “DEMOCRACY” 2018 Inkjet on Photo Museum Etching paper 18 x 22 in

Most frequent responses from around the world: Freedom, Politics, Liberty

Brian Dailey “GOVERNMENT” 2018 Inkjet on Photo Museum Etching paper 18 x 22 in
Most frequent responses from around the world: Corruption, Power, Good

Brian Dailey “FREEDOM” 2018 Inkjet on Photo

Most frequent responses from around the world: Peace, Happiness, Life

Words about WORDS
Represented in these prints is every word uttered by the nearly 2,000 participants who responded to the thirteen prompts propelling this project. Giving voice to each and every individual who engaged in the WORDS endeavor, the various responses were calibrated and scaled to reflect the frequency in which they were articulated. The textual array manifest in this print series silently mirrors the poetic elements emanating from the towering installation while visually mapping the same territory.

About the artist

Perhaps no word better characterizes Brian Dailey (b. 1951) than polytropos, the first adjective Homer applies to Odysseus in the Odyssey. Translated from the Greek as “well traveled,” “much wandering,” and, in a more metaphorical sense, as “the man of many twists and turns,” polytropos suitably describes Dailey’s life journey and its many peregrinations. As a student at Otis Art Institute (MFA, 1975) and in his ensuing art career in Los Angeles, Dailey participated in the pioneering creative experimentation defining the prolific artistic milieu in California in this era. His early career launched him on a path that—before bringing him full circle back to his roots as an artist—took him through a twenty-year interlude working on arms control and international security. These unusual experiences, which he approached with the same curiosity that has driven his art, provide a fertile source of inspiration in his idiosyncratic creative practice. As the artist states:

There is art in politics and politics in art. Throughout my life two passions stimulated my curiosity: art and international politics. The tension between two interests generated my intense inquiry into these seemingly diametrically opposed professional fields. In the context of my career, the wanderings through a labyrinth of artistic and intellectual encounters provided a lifetime of eclectic experiences, which, in turn, supplied a bounty of material for my art.

Based in the Washington DC metropolitan area, Dailey is an artist whose work in a range of media, including photography, film, installations, and painting, draws on his multifaceted life experiences. His conceptual and performance based art expands the parameters of the mediums in which he works, defying easy categorization. Engaging with the social, political, and cultural issues of our times, his work is informed by his unusual background and unconventional evolution as an artist.

See more information about the artist and this project: http://www.briandaileyart.com/words/

Brian Dailey WORDS

January 27 – March 11, 2018

American University Museum

Washington, D.C.

Framing Specifications

Painted maple frame with dolphin finish, matching spacer, and strainer

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Profile: 101 Type: Floating Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: maple frame with painted dolphin finish
Purchasing Option: joined wood frame
custom wood spacer: 1/2″ matching wood frame spacer
Custom wood strainer: 3/4″ wood frame strainer
Custom frame acrylic: 1/8″ regular acrylic cut to size
Custom frame backing board: 1/8″ acid free foamboard cut to size