This Saturday join MacArthur Fellow artist Mark Bradford in conversation with Hammer Museum Chief Curator, followed by a book signing of his first monograph.
Born in Los Angeles and raised in his mother's hair salon in Leimert Park, Mark Bradford learned at an early age the rudimentary tools of his art: calligraphy, signage, and handicraft. But perhaps most importantly he recognized the language of the people and things around him. Ernest Hardy, in the artist's first monograph, Merchant Posters, launching this week at REDCAT, writes about the artist's world of signage, imagery, and ideas: "To create his merchant posters, Mark canvasses Los Angeles, specifically the once-Whites-Only- then-primarily-Negro-now-equally-Latino part of South Los Angeles (formerly and infamously known as South Central) in which he works and lives. It's where he harvests the handmade signs that he finds on telephone poles, on the fences and wood barricades that block construction sites, and in the windows of mom & pop stores." As a self-described "builder and demolisher," Mark Bradford is responsible for a rare blend of urban life and transcendent art.
This book must be a milestone for you. Does it feel like an ending and a beginning?
No, it feels like an uncompleted book. I have been collecting these posters for over 15 years and the story keeps changing.
You've spoken about telling a story through signs -- what story is your book telling the reader?
The stories are about self-motivation and survival on a very basic level. The self-employed, which I consider myself to also be, understand that they have to make their life happen, and that it's up to them to get out there and be heard.
Have you tracked the evolution of your source material over the years?
All the posters come from the same printer: Colby Graphics. I think that it's funny that no competitor has been able to topple Colby; its like it is the Don of the printing world in Los Angeles.
You're well known for your active involvement with your community. How important is arts advocacy to your work and life? How do you enact it?
I don't do anything special but be me, where ever that takes me. I think that activism can be a very small and quiet gesture as well as a very large one, it just depends on the context.
If you could riff on "Mr. Bradford Goes to Washington," what would you say to Congress about the necessity for greater funding for the arts in America?
Art matters, art has always mattered, and art will continue to matter... period.
Name 5 of your favorite destinations in Leimart Park.
I like to eat at Ackee Bamboo; I listen to blues at Babes and Ricky's, Project Blowed is an interesting Open Mic at Kaos Network on Thursday night. I like laying in parking lots on the cement when the sun is shining.
SATURDAY, APRIL 10
Mark Bradford in Conversation with Hammer Museum Chief Curator Douglas Fogle
REDCAT (Downtown)
3-5pm
RSVP to celebrate@foryourart.com to reserve a ticket for the conversation. Book signing at 4:30pm.
Presented by ForYourArt and Ovation, the only television channel that explores today's world through the prism of art and contemporary culture.