CONTACT: 937-223-5277
Kim Patton, ext. 223, kpatton@daytonartinstitute.org
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THE DAYTON ART INSTITUTE RECEIVES LOAN OF LARGE SCALE WORK BY ARTIST MARK BRADFORD

(DAYTON, OHIO) - Visitors to The Dayton Art Institute will now be greeted on their arrival in the General Motors Entrance Rotunda by Helter Skelter I, a shimmering collage by California artist Mark Bradford.   Measuring 12 feet in height and nearly 35 feet in length, the work is on loan from The Dicke Collection until spring 2009.

“It is exciting to be able to share a signature work by an artist who is a center of international attention with our visitors,” said Dayton Art Institute Director and CEO Janice Driesbach.  “I am impressed by the new details I see each time I look at Mark Bradford’s work and anticipate viewers will enjoy his rich and dynamic composition.  I am likewise impressed by the acumen of the Dicke Family in acquiring Helter Skelter I and their generosity in allowing us to present this ambitious canvas at The Dayton Art Institute.”

Using a distinctive approach to materials, Mark Bradford begins works such as Helter Skelter I by collecting, soaking, and gluing together advertisements and merchant posters from his South Los Angeles neighborhood.  He proceeds to outline areas of text with twine and covers the resulting surface with billboard paper.  Bradford then goes back into his accretions with a sander to reveal areas that were obscured, with the intention of revealing “conditions that are going on at that particular moment at that particular location.”

Helter-Skelter I was featured in Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century, the inaugural exhibition hosted by the New Museum in New York City last winter.  The lines and shapes scattered across its glistening multi-level surface take the viewer’s eye in all directions, reflecting the multiple stimuli encountered in contemporary urban environments and defying efforts to take in the entire composition at once.  In creating collages that are literally the product of his community and the streets that surround him, Bradford’s materials reflect political and social changes that are taking place.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

An internationally renowned artist, Bradford received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from California Institute of the Arts.  His early works were comprised of materials from the beauty salon his mother operated (and where he once worked as a stylist).  He first came to attention when his compositions were featured in Freestyle, a groundbreaking exhibition of works by 28 African-American artists that was organized by the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001.

Bradford’s work has since been featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the XXVII Sao Paulo Bienal (also 2006), the 2008 Carnegie International exhibition (currently on view in Pittsburgh), and in the PBS documentary Art: 21.  Bradford is also the recipient of the prestigious Bucksbaum Award, bestowed by the Whitney Museum of American Art for significant contributions to the visual arts.

Among the artistic sources Mark Bradford references are cartography, printmaking, and the gestural marks of Abstract Expressionist painting. While his compositions have characteristics of painting, no paint is used in their construction.  Whereas images such as Helter Skelter I have affinities with maps in their viewpoint—as well as in associations the silver foil may suggest to land masses or bodies of water in urban contexts—the site evoked is not identified.  Carter E. Foster, curator of drawings at the Whitney Museum of American Art, notes that Bradford’s “subject matter, ultimately, evokes history and place through the fragmentation and recombination of matter from the urban environment.”

ABOUT THE DAYTON ART INSTITUTE
The Dayton Art Institute offers a full range of programming in addition to exhibition of its collection. The galleries and Museum Store are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and on Thursday until 8 p.m. Free parking is available at the museum and the facility is fully accessible to physically challenged visitors. CAFÉ MONET by Elegant Fare is open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more information, please call 937-223-4ART or visit www.daytonartinstitute.org.

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The Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that supports public programs in the arts, helped fund this organization with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.