Crosby Nursery

Mark Bradford is celebrated for his large-scale, thickly textured paintings, collages and installations that incorporate scavenged materials from city streets. Ranging from flyers and billboard papers to rope and graffiti stencils, these found objects directly reference their origin in daily urban life. Bradford then abstractly collages these materials to evoke aerial maps, particularly areas that grapple with race and poverty. The grid-like structure of his work has been compared to Piet Mondrian. Bradford has also explored the recurring themes of race, class and gender through video, photography and sculpture. 

A highly influential figure in contemporary American art, Bradford represented the US at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and received a US Medal of Arts in 2014. He has also earned numerous prestigious awards such as the MacArthur Genius Award and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, and in 2019, he was elected to membership to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Born in Los Angeles in 1961, Bradford studied at the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a BFA in 1995 and an MFA in 1997. He continues to live and work in Los Angeles.

-       Tomorrow Is Another Day, 2016, 124 x 215 inches (315 x 546.1 cm), the title work of the Venice Biennale

-       Mithra, 2008, 70 x 20 x 25 ft (2133.6 x 609.6 x 762 cm), a monumental installation that pays homage to the resilience of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina

-       Los Moscos, 2004, Mixed media on canvas, 125 x 190.5 inches (317.5 x 483.87 cm), an exemplary painting made from materials found in Los Angeles and held in the collection of the Tate Modern