New Yorker Joe Bradley (born 1975) is known for his multifaceted works, which are situated between figuration and abstraction. The show at the Kunsthalle Krems encompasses around 70 of Bradley’s most recent works, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures. It is the US American’s first museum exhibition in Austria.

For over twenty years, Joe Bradley has worked on a multi-layered oeuvre characterized by graphical, comic-like figuration, minimalism, and color field elements. Many of the works also have ironic traits often found in post-conceptual art. His works constantly alternate between abstract and figurative elements and reference the Western painting tradition ranging from Henri Matisse to Willem de Kooning. Bradley’s most recent paintings are marked by their density of paint, stunningly bright colors, and graphical accents.

Bradley’s early works in the late 1990s were inspired by Nordic-romantic landscape painting. Later he turned to monochrome painting with his Modular Paintings, reminiscent of the minimalist works of Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly. From 2010 on, he created large-scale, gestural and informal paintings featuring a mixture of abstraction and figuration. His works are a continuous exploration of the process-based nature and materiality of painting.

Joe Bradley’s work has been exhibited in numerous international museums, including the MoMA and the Whitney Museum in New York. His works are part of important collections, including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in New York State and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

The Krems exhibition centers on large-format, brightly colored paintings drawn from Bradley’s most recent work. These are accompanied by reductive drawings and ready-made sculptures, illustrating the multifaceted work of this important contemporary artist.

Curator: Florian Steininger