calendario eventi  :: 

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16/2/2012

Two exhibitions

YBCA - Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco

MARK BRADFORD
18 February - 27 May, 2012

Mark Bradford (b. 1961) is best known for large-scale abstract paintings made from a variety of collaged materials, including billboard paper, hairdressing supplies, newsprint, carbon paper, and other papers layered together (or stripped apart) and then manipulated with nylon string, caulking, and sanding. Often incorporating references to the social conditions of a particular location, these works not only extend the possibilities of contemporary painting, they offer an unusual and highly individual examination of the economies (often defined by race, gender, and class) that structure urban society in the United States, and specifically in Leimert Park, the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood where the artist lived as a child and continues to maintain his studio.

Organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts and co-presented in San Francisco by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and SFMOMA, this comprehensive survey of Bradford’s career to date will be on view at both venues, offering more than 50 works from 2000 through 2010. Included in YBCA’s presentation is the large-scale work Detail, an ark-like sculpture reconstructed from components of Mithra, a piece originally created for the 2008 Prospect.1 biennial in New Orleans in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Also on view at YBCA will be Bradford’s 2011 work Rat Catcher of Hamelin. The work is a large-scale four–panel mixed media collage created for the Istanbul biennial. 50 billboards collected from all around South-Central Los Angeles form the basis of this socially charged abstract art. Sanded, stripped surfaces reveal what lies below.

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AUDIENCE AS SUBJECT, PART 2: EXTRA LARGE
18 February - 27 May, 2012

The rock band on the stage, the athlete on the soccer field, the politician at the podium — all command the attention of huge crowds, not to mention cameras. Audience as Subject, Part 2: Extra Large turns the lens back on the audience, exposing the dramatic and narrative potential of the crowd itself.

Audience as Subject is a two-part exhibition that explores the shift in our perception of the audience member from that of spectator to that of subject. These works of photography, video and other media comment on the larger changes in contemporary ideas about participation in public life. The real-life gatherings they depict are set against new ways of thinking about social interaction in an age when virtual worlds, electronic friendship and texting have changed the ways that we participate in communities of like-minded people with similar interests, cultural affiliations, and political leanings.

The artists in Part 2: Extra Large represent how audiences look, how they behave and where they gather, as one way of understanding the attraction that being among others has had in recent years. They examine the behavior of the individuals that make up the collective — their body language, facial expressions, attitudes, gestures, actions and energy — through drawing, painting, photography, and video. These images explore the ways we perform the roles of spectator and fan, and uncover our fervent desire to take part in shared experiences on a massive scale. They challenge our perceptions about participation in public life as they reveal what we collectively become when we gather together.

Artists include Andrea Bowers, Elaine Constantine, Stephen Dean, Jeremy Deller & Nick Abrahams, Andreas Gursky, Alexey Kallima, Gonzalo Lebrija, Ryan McGinley, Rabih Mroué, Paul Pfeiffer, Melanie Smith, and Wang Qingsong.

The first part of the exhibition, Audience as Subject, Part 1: Medium, took place from October 30, 2010 to February 6, 2011 and focused on audiences as social citizens and participant viewers of cultural events at theaters, cinemas, TV studios and plazas. It included the following artists: Ulla Von Brandenburg, Danica Dakić, Adrian Paci, Gabriel Acevedo Velarde, Stefan Constantinescu, caraballo-farman, and Shizu Saldamando.

Image: © Mark Bradford
Photo: Javier Romero

Press contact:
Maureen Dixon 415.321.1307 mdixon@ybca.org

Mark Bradford Opening Night Party
Feb 17, 2012 9:30pm Grand Lobby
$5 Advance/ $7 at the door/ FREE for YBCA and SFMOMA members

YBCA Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103
Hours: Thu–Sat 12–8 pm Sun 12–6 pm
Ticket: Gallery Admission: $7 regular; $5 students, seniors, teachers; free for YBCA members

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