Mark Bradford, Life Size, 2019 © Mark Bradford
‘Life Size’ by Mark Bradford
Frieze Los Angeles
For the inaugural edition of Frieze Los Angeles, Mark Bradford has created an image of a police body camera isolated on a light-colored background. Entitled ‘Life Size’, this significant work comprises the powerful camera image presented on posters around the city, a large-scale billboard on location at Paramount Studios, as well as a limited-edition print series of the image, rendered into a 3-D sculptural work that is elevated from the print’s surface
In 2019, a police body camera has clear evocations around responsibility and notions of freedom across the United States, and specifically in Los Angeles, as one of the most culturally and racially diverse cities in the nation, which has its own charged history with these themes. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bradford’s interest in our shared human experiences is a theme that runs throughout his diverse studio practice.
‘The police body camera carries with it such loaded and complex connotations. I also love it as an object—it’s both haunting and resonant.’
‘Life Size’ is contextualized by a collaboration between Frieze Los Angeles and Art for Justice, a five-year philanthropic initiative created by Agnes Gund that tackles incarceration injustices. The project reflects the artist’s longstanding interest in how communities address issues of social and economic justice, as well as his belief in art’s ability to inspire action in the present day.
Throughout his career, Bradford has been known for his large-scale abstract paintings that examine the class-, race-, and gender-based economies that structure urban society in the United States. Bradford’s richly layered and collaged canvases represent a connection to the social world through materials.
Bradford uses fragments of found posters, billboards, newsprint, and custom-printed paper to simultaneously engage with and advance the formal traditions of abstract painting. – ‘Life Size’ is a partnership between the artist, Endeavor, Hauser & Wirth and Frieze Los Angeles. For more information on the limited-edition print, please enquire via email here.
