Christopher Bedford

Katy Siegel

Mark Bradford's exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is born out of his longtime commitment to the inherently social nature of the material world we all inhabit. For Bradford, abstraction is not opposed to content; it embodies it. His selection of ordinary materials represents the hair salon, Home Depot, and the streets of Los Angeles--both the culture industry and the grey economy. Bradford renews the traditions of abstract and materialist painting, demonstrating that freedom from socially prescribed representation is profoundly meaningful in the hands of a black artist. Bradford's longtime social and intellectual interests will be present in the Pavilion, most notably in his concern for marginalized people, both their vulnerability and their resiliency, and the cyclical threat and hope of American unfulfilled social promise. Coming at a moment of terrible uncertainty, 'Tomorrow is Another Day' is a narrative of ruin, violence, agency, and possibility, a story of ambition and belief in art's capacity to engage us all in urgent and profound conversations, and even action. Exhibition: U.S. Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy (13.05.-126.11.2016).

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