Katherine Bradford
Swimmers Under Colors (2020)
New York-based Katherine Bradford (b.1942) paints luminous fields of color filled with people in action or in repose–often swimming, diving or floating. Bradford paints with a formal inventiveness and a shifting sense of figure and ground, giving narrative weight to her characters who may appear as heroes or lovers, families or couples, Her chromatic scenes, painted in many transparent layers of acrylic, transmit a light-filled quality and offer metaphorical possibilities as they veer between humor, pathos and abstraction.
Bradford was born in New York City. She started painting at the age of 30 while living year-round in Maine in the 70’s and was among the early group of artists who founded the UMVA. In the 80’s she moved to New York City and returns each summer to her home in Brunswick. Bradford is represented by Canada in New York and Caldbeck Gallery in Rockport Maine. She has exhibited widely at institutions such as: MoMA P.S.1; The Brooklyn Museum, NY; the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, AR; the Tang Museum, Skidmore College, NY; and at the Ogden Museum in Prospect.4: The New Orleans Biennial. Her work is included in collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Menil Collection in Houston, TX, and the Portland Museum of Art, ME. Her work has been shown at commercial galleries including: Sperone Westwater and Pace Gallery in New York; Campoli Presti Gallery, London and Paris; Philipp Haverkampf Galerie, Berlin; and Adams and Ollman, Portland OR, among others. Bradford is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Joan Mitchell Grant. She has taught at institutions such as the Yale School of Art, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. A recent monograph, Katherine Bradford: Paintings, was published by Canada in 2018. Forthcoming shows include a solo in Milan Italy at Kaufman Repetto Gallery, a solo at the Hall Foundation in Reading, Vermont, a two person show at Harvard’s Carpenter Center and a solo show at Tomio Koyama in Tokyo. In 2022, Bradford will be the subject of a touring retrospective organized by the Portland Museum of Art, Maine which will open in Portland next summer.
“Swimmers Under Lights”, acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30” 2020 is an iconic Bradford summer nocturne. One swimmer stands firmly in on-rushing surf while his female companion looks on. In the distance is a third swimmer about to take a dive from a glowing rock. What gives the scene its ballast are the floating orbs of lights above them in the sky. These is not your ordinary starry night full of twinkling stars. These lights are as hefty as planets and each one is distinguished by a different color. We may be looking at a red Mars and a glowing Saturn surrounded by celestial rotating moons. What happens under a sky like this is bound to be as portentous as lights like these happen only a few times in a lifetime.
EDUCATION
MFA, State University of New York, Purchase, NY
BA, Bryn Mawr College, PA
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022 (forthcoming) Solo Survey show at the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (traveling)
(forthcoming) Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
(forthcoming) Tomio Koyama, Tokyo JAPAN2021 (forthcoming) Two person show with Diedrick Brackens, Harvard’s Carpenter Art Center for Visual Art, Cambridge, MA Opening Sept 15th
Mother Paintings, Canada, New York, NY
Lifeguards, Kaufman Repetto, Milan, Italy
Philosophers’ Clambake, Hall Art Foundation, Reading VT
Solo Presentation 34 Bourdon Street, Campoli Presti, London, UK2020 Mother Joins the Circus, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
With love, from Maine, Canada, New York, NY (online)2019 Artists, Cops and Circus People, Campoli Presti, Paris, FR Stripes and Legs, Campoli Presti, London, U.K.
2018 Friends and Strangers, Canada, New York, NY
Superman Returns With Swimmers, Galerie Haverkampf, Berlin, GermanyMagenta Nights, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
Being like Water, with Jen DeNike, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Superman Responds, Galerie Haverkampf, Berlin, Germany
FOCUS: Katherine Bradford, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
Katherine Bradford, Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milan, Italy
Katherine Bradford, Sperone Westwater, New York, NY, courtesy CANADA NYC2016 Fear of Waves, Canada, New York, NY
Divers and Dreamers, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR2015 Fred Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, CT
2014 Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
Arts & Leisure, New York, NY
Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL2013 Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Steven Harvey Fine Art, New York, NY2012 Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY2011 Aucocisco Galleries, Portland ME
2010 John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY
Samson Projects, Boston, MA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Menil Foundation, Houston, TX
Hall Collection, Reading, VT
The Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, Orlando, FL
Dallas Museum of Art, TX
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Portland Museum, ME
Worcester Museum of Art, MA
Addison Gallery of American Art, MA
Bates College Museum, ME
Bowdoin College Museum, ME
Farnsworth Museum, ME
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, PA
Smith College Museum, MA
The George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art, New Bedford Museum, MA
Float, Fly, Transcend, Alabama Contemporary, Birmingham, AL
Women of Vision, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
It's All About Water, The Storefront, Bellport, NY
Six Hot and Glassy, Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott, NY
Equal Affections, curated by Edwin Oostmeijer, Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam Netherlands
Different Strokes curated by Marcus Jahmal Almine Rech Gallery, London UK
Friend Zone curated by Vaughn Spann, Half Gallery, New York, NY
Sleep, Haverkampf Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Dear John, James Castle and his Influence on Contemporary Artists, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
Reflections: Human Nature. Gana Art Seoul, Korea2020 A Zigzag Over Essence, Winter Street Gallery, Winter Street Gallery, Edgartown, MA
A Show of Hands, SEPTEMBER Gallery, Hudson, NY
Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, The Tang Teaching Museum and ArtGallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Painting the Essential: New York, 1980-Present, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK (online)
Gallery Swap with Philipp Haverkamps at Alice Folker Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dog Days: Ryan McGinley, Katherine Bradford, Jack Pierson, Launch F18, New York, NY
Surf Show, Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott, New York2019 Katherine Bradford, Hulda Guzman, Rebecca Ness, Alexander Berggruen Gallery, New York, NY
Art Purposes, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
WHAT HAVE WE DONE? 15th Annual Thanksgiving Collective, Tripoli Gallery, East Hampton, NY
GARDEN, Shrine Gallery, New York, NY
Canada b/w Drag City, Soccer Club Club, Chicago, IL
Occupy Colby, curated by Phong Bui. Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
JTT Gallery NYC, Condo New York with Adams and Ollman, Katherine Bradford, Vaginal Davis and Geoffrey Mitchell, New York, NY
Downward Flower, Curated by Adrianne Rubenstein, Fourteen 30, Portland, OR
Dance With Me, curated by Kyle Staver, Zurcher Gallery, NYC
Nurikabe, Tetsuo’s Garage, Nikko Japan
Heat Wave, Philipps Auction, London
Downtown Painting, Presented by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman, Inc., New York, NY
Go Figure!, Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Away in the Hill, Grimm Gallery, New York, NY
Big Ringer, curated by Andrew Guenther, Andrew Edlin Gallery NYC
Manifest Content, Campoli Presti, London, UK
Girl Meets Girl, Choi & Jager Gallery, Cologne, Germany
Note Book, curated by Joann Greenbaum, 56 Henry, NYC
The World According To, curated by Andria Hickey, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Men of Steel, Women of Wonder, Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AK
Pulse, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, KC
I Don't Believe in Art I Believe in Artists, LX Gallery NYC curated by Jen deNike, NYC
Brooklyn Rail Collateral Event at Venice Biennale2018 Tell Him What We Said…, One Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY
Redefining the Sublime, The Hall Foundation, Gray Art Gallery, New York, NY; curated by Joel Sternfeld Aporia, David & Schweitzer Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Intimacy, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
Adolescent Rebellion, One Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY Night Gallery, Los Angeles
A Time Before We Were Born: Visions of Arcadia in Contemporary Painting, curated by Raphael Rubenstein,
Sylvia Wald + Po Kim Gallery, New York, NY
Landscapes after Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime, curated by Joel Sternfeld, Hall Art Foundation, Reading VT
Works on Paper, George Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Dancing Goddesses, Dio Horia Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Paradise, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Reinventing the Figure, Monica De Cardenas, Zuoz, Switzerland
Summer of Love, Freight and Volume, New York, NY
The Solace of Amnesia, curated by Alexis Rockman and Katherine Gass Stowe, Hall Art Foundation, Reading, VT