32 Facts About Mark Bradford

Mark Bradford was born on November 20,1961 and is an American visual artist.

Mark Bradford was the US representative for the 2017 Venice Biennale.

Mark Bradford was included in Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2021.

Mark Bradford's mother rented a beauty salon in Leimert Park.

Mark Bradford moved with his family to a largely white neighborhood in Santa Monica when he was 11, but his mother still maintained her business in the old neighborhood.

When Mark Bradford graduated high school, he obtained his hairdresser's license and went to work at his mother's salon.

Mark Bradford began his studies at Santa Monica College and then transferred to the California Institute of the Arts, graduating in 1991 at 30.

Mark Bradford earned a BFA in 1995 and an MFA in 1997.

Mark Bradford is known for grid-like abstract paintings combining collage with paint.

Mark Bradford's works are made out of layers of paper and cords which he carves into using various tools and techniques, including gouging, tearing, shredding, gluing, power-washing, and sanding.

In 2006, Mark Bradford painted 'Scorched Earth' and 'Black Wall Street,' based on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

Mark Bradford continues by saying that studying section by section offers traces of the artist's sensual, tactile process, revealing delicate layers of found material sliced and sanded, lacquered and pasted until transformed.

Mark Bradford shipped it to New Orleans for Prospect New Orleans, an exhibition of contemporary art commemorating Hurricane Katrina.

In 2012, Mark Bradford narrated the soundtrack to the 30-minute, site-specific dance duet Framework by choreographer Benjamin Millepied in conjunction with the show The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

In 2015, Mark Bradford created Pull Painting 1, a site-specific wall drawing inspired by Sol LeWitt along a 60-foot wall in the Wadsworth Atheneum, as part of the museum's MATRIX 172 program.

Mark Bradford sanded, peeled, stripped, and cut away from the wall to create the textured composition.

In 2015 Mark Bradford unveiled Elgin Gardens, a special commission for 1221 Avenue of the Americas at Rockefeller Center, New York, NY.

Also in 2017, Mark Bradford installed 'We The People' at the US Embassy in London.

In December 2018, a monumental new commission by Mark Bradford was unveiled at the University of California, San Diego Stuart Collection.

For one day only in August 2013, Project Hermes, a work by Mark Bradford installed in a private home in La Jolla, California, opened to the public before the building was eventually demolished.

In conjunction with the 2017 US Pavilion, Mark Bradford embarked on a six-year collaboration with Venice nonprofit social cooperative Rio Tera dei Pensieri, which provides employment opportunities to men and women incarcerated in Venice who create artisanal goods and other products and supports their re-integration into society.

In October 2018, Mark Bradford featured an image of Here, a mixed media on canvas work, on the Order of Service for Princess Eugenie of York's wedding to Jack Brooksbank.

Mark Bradford was the first artist since the Fund's establishment to directly support the organization with proceeds from the sale of his artwork, and the initiative raised more than $1 million.

Also in 2020, accompanying 'End Papers' at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Mark Bradford curated a set of three billboards throughout the city for the museum's program Modern Billings.

In January 2015, Mark Bradford presented "Tears of a Tree," a new body of work at The Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, China.

Also in 2015, Mark Bradford presented 'Scorched Earth,' his first solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles, at the Hammer Museum.

Mark Bradford's exhibition, titled 'Tomorrow Is Another Day,' garnered extensive critical acclaim, and Mark Bradford was lauded as 'our Jackson Pollock.

In November 2021, Mark Bradford opened 'Agora,' curated by Philippe Vergne, at the Fundacao de Serralves.

Mark Bradford is a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a grant from the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, the United States Artists fellowship, the Bucksbaum Award, granted by The Whitney Museum of American Art ; a grant from the MacArthur Fellows Program and the Wexner Center Residency Award.

In 2016, Bradford was awarded the High Museum of Art's David C Driskell Prize.

In November 2017, Mark Bradford was honored as WSJ magazine's Art Innovator at their annual Innovator Awards.

Mark Bradford was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People for 2021.