Galerie Eva Presenhuber is pleased to present the „Sculpture for Billy Hand“ on the Cycladic island of Antiparos in Greece this summer. Joe Bradley, who simultaneously holds a solo exhibition of new works (sculptures and paintings) at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zurich, puts this sculpture, like a satellite of its related sibling-sculptures, of which four additional ones in different colors can be seen in the exhibition in Zurich, on the patio of a house in a Mediterranean port town.

In Joe Bradley’s sculptural work, there seem to exist two opposing ways that, in terms of their effect on the viewer, couldn’t be more different from each other and yet give the impression that they unite two imminent art-historical standpoints: On the one hand, there are open-form, figurative bronze sculptures on pedestals, like they were on view in his first solo exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in New York. In their form and manner, these works can be perceived as both following and continuing Bradley’s early paintings in an archaic-cartoonish style (Schmagoos). On the other hand, there are closed-form minimalist sculptures, which are to be classified as part of the tradition of his “Modular” Paintings. These cubic, man-sized sculptures, some monochrome, others bicolored, are primarily characterized by their significant and emblematic presence. Similar to the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), Bradley’s colored monoliths seem to repress the surrounding space and powerfully face the viewer. At the same time, the vibrant and comic-like colors impart the works a playful ingenuousness.

The comparison of both types of sculpture in Bradley’s work appears exemplary of the development of sculpture since the modern age in general. His bronze sculptures breathe the spirit of both primitive and modern art. In contrast, the here exhibited aluminum and Plexiglas sculptures formulate the constructivist alternative. The narrative titles of these woks don’t appear to have a direct connection to the works themselves and point to a sculpture’s character as an intellectual projection surface. The sculptures can be presented both in- and outdoors.

Joe Bradley was born in 1975 in Kittery, Maine. He received his B.F.A. in 1999 from Rhode Island School of Design. Bradley’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including ConTEMPorary, New York, United States (2003); P.S.1 Contemporary Art, Long Island City, New York, United States (2006); and Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2014). Recent group exhibitions include “ Silicone Valley,” P.S.1 Contemporary Art, Long Island, New York, United States (2007); “ab-strac-tion-al,” Museum 52, New York, United States (2009); “New York Minute,” MACRO Foundation, Rome, Italy (2009); “EXPO 1: NEW YORK (curated by Klaus Biesenbach)”, P.S.1 Contemporary Art, Long Island, New York, United States (2013); “The Inevitable Figuration,” Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy (2013); “The Forever Now: Contemporary Paintings in an Atemporal World (curated by Laura Hoptman),” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States (2014–15); and “New York Painting,” Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2015). Bradley’s work was also included in the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, United States (2008). In fall 2017 Bradley will have a solo show in the US at the Albright Know Museum in Buffalo, United States. His first comprehensive monograph accompanies the exhibition.

Bradley currently lives and works in New York.

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