MARK BRADFORD, mixed media
Angeleno artists are popping up all over Chelsea, and they’re certainly well represented in this Biennial. Mark Bradford makes collaged Mondrian-esque grids from strips of posters he picks up on the streets of South L.A.—paying homage to the sprawl of his city and the cacophony of ours. “I’m drawn to collage because it’s the immediate juxtaposition of activity. In the city, I have that same feeling—Nigerian business next to Korean business next to Jewish business,” says the 44-year-old CalArts graduate, who’s been in several shows at the Studio Museum in Harlem and had solos at Sikkema Jenkins. Studio Museum curator Christine Y. Kim praises his “unapologetic hybridization of work, play, and art. He’s discussed having been a hairdresser in South Central, using the same backdrops and aesthetic languages as that subculture—yet it complements his painting.”