Mark Bradford
Be Strong Boquan
Marke was present at the opening. He’s a very striking individual, 6′6″ African american guy, reed thin. No wonder that his canvasses are so big, it’s because he is too. I can just image him painting the tops of one of those massive pieces. The show is super cool. He book ends the show with 2 videos. Thoughtful videos. THe first one is a 3 projector piece that runs almost the length of the gallery and shows roller skating wheels “Kryptonic” wheels rolling in and bouncing out of frame. So cool when you realize that this gallery used to be a huge roller skating run. I whish they would put art in the middle and allow you to skate around it harkening it’s old glory days of the 1970′s.
The end video is a visual-less audio recording of a very racy and not political piece of a comedian riffing on Aids, Being African American and race in America. Funny that the show and 3 of the smaller pieces are named from the comedian’s riff piece.
Cool and complicated. Rockstar stuff.