~JOE BRADLEY . . MUGGLE MUDPIES
DEDICATED TO: JAMES GANDOLFINI – JERSEY BOY.
who died today, Wed June 19 age 51, in Rome – a huge heartbeat, lost.
BIG QUESTION: so . . . is a Lotus ‘beater’, as opposed to a Lotus EATER .. just . . a muggle ?
as in, you know . . Harry Potter.
that is: a common no-inspiration, no magic . . . ordinary lowlife human-type sub-species.
is lotus ‘beating’, something you want to achieve, or eschew ?
JOE BRADLEY – ‘LOTUS BEATERS’
the show opened May 16, 2013
MAY 17 – JUNE 29, 2013
Gavin Brown’s enterprise – 620 GREENWICH ST – WEST VILLAGE, NYC
the ‘first’ gallery was home to just one series of 4 big paintings, hung in a tight row, and titled, from right to left:
“Muggles #5, Muggles #4, Muggles #3, and Muggles #2.
they didn’t seem to make sense . . individually. at least on first impression.
they didn’t seem to make sense, at all. actually.
I’ll be the first to admit. coming after my huge rush . . on the hyper real, totally graphic, so graphic it’s abstract .. work of JACK GOLDSTEIN, it was hard to make the . . leap.
hard to transition.
in fact, coming off of Joe Bradley’s own early work, which seemed ‘abstract’ – but always referenced the human form, or the human ‘feature’, as in grin, or Superman logo, scroll down to the intro post below – it was hard to catch the drift, though the work did have roots in Joe’s early no-name, no-form ugly brown rug wall piece ?
maybe that was the deal.
these were MUGGLE paintings. these were portraits of a mind-set. so yep, they still referenced: HUMAN.
these were anti-art trophy paintings. these were anti-Jeff Koons paintings.
these were . . heartbeats.
these were pumping mysterious heartbeats . . not euphoric exactly, but background bass beats. you know, you have your Jean Michel on one wall, your Andy Warhol centered on the next, your Jack Goldstein, sharp as a knife on the third, and a couple of Bradley heartbeats, pumping away, below the surface – on the last. you sit in the room, and your pulse rises.
Lotus Beater, ha.
still Lotus – eater !! if you ask . . me.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH