Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Joe Bradley & Chris Martin · February 25 - March 27, 2010

534 W 26th Street
February 25 - March 27, 2010

Press Release

Joe Bradley & Chris Martin
February 25 – March 27

New York, January 22, 2010 - Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to present a two-person exhibition of New York painters Joe Bradley and Chris Martin in the Chelsea gallery from February 25 – March 27. Both artists will present a group of new works. The exhibition was conceived as part of an ongoing dialogue between the two painters.

JB: … You know, wishful thinking is the way things start. It kind of seeps into reality after a while.

CM: I wish we could all wish for not knowing what we are doing. But in a good way. I think there's a sense of freedom that comes from everybody not being too sure what they're doing. Someone once said about New York in the early 1950s, late '40s, after Expressionism was sort of bursting onto the scene, "There was a moment, maybe six weeks or so, when no one had any idea how to make a painting." And that's a lovely idea, that we don't know what we're doing…

JB: There's this Guston quote that I think is brilliant, that when you're in the studio, your friends and family are there and the ghosts of art history are there, your contemporaries are there. If you stay long enough they all leave, and if you're lucky you leave…

CM: Right, so the real discipline is that one goes to the studio or one goes to a space where one is available to the muse. There are no preconditions, only that you go there and you move colored dirt around. The discipline is listening to the colored dirt telling you what to do. So the discipline is showing up and staying…

JB: It's really hard to articulate but I do think that that's the place to be when you're making art. I mean you need one foot on turf, on land, and one foot in the cosmos.

CM: It's like being inside and outside at the same time. On the one hand you are in trance, on the other hand you are watching yourself paint. And I think the key is that when you are watching yourself paint you don't judge, you just watch. The less I judge the more I can actually create and see what I'm doing.

JB: The stuff that always sticks with me is the work that I see and I'm like, "I want to make something." You know what I mean? You're allowed to keep doing it. It's not like an end game sort of thing where this is throwing down the gauntlet. You know, it is open-ended.

CM: Yeah, that's right. God, we sound like a couple of old Beats. If you are reading this now, we don't know what we're talking about, and we don't know where this is going. Just like our best paintings.

The above dialogue is excerpted from an interview published in The Journal in Fall 2009.

Joe Bradley was born in 1975 and lives and works in Brooklyn. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999. He has had solo exhibitions at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Canada in New York, and at Peres Projects in Los Angeles and Berlin. His work was included in the Whitney Biennial in 2008. He is represented in New York by Canada.

Chris Martin was born in 1954 and lives and works in Brooklyn. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and attended Yale University. Recent group shows have included "Abstract America" at the Saatchi Gallery in London, "Painting as Fact – Fact as Fiction" at de Pury and Luxembourg, Zurich, and "The Painted World" at P.S.1. His work is represented in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. He is represented by Mitchell-Innes & Nash.

Opening Reception: Thursday February 25, 6 – 8 pm

Listings information:
Mitchell-Innes & Nash is located at 534 West 26th Street. Tel: 212 744 7400

website: www.miandn.com
Press: Mamie Tinkler mamie@miandn.com

Exhibition Publications

JOE BRADLEY & CHRIS MARTIN

Exhibition Artists

View Chris Martin Artist Information

Exhibition Images

CHRIS MARTIN
"Pillow Painting," 2007-09
Oil and collage on canvas
54 by 49 in. 137.2 by 124.5 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Hemlock," 2010
Mixed media on canvas
135 by 109 3/4 in. 342.9 by 278.8 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Ain't It Funky," 2003-10
Mixed media on canvas
135 by 114 in. 342.9 by 289.6 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Big Glitter Painting," 2009-10
Mixed media on canvas
135 by 108 1/4 in. 342.9 by 275 cm.

Installation view

JOE BRADLEY
"Untitled," 2010
Canvas
106 by 92 in. 269.2 by 233.7 cm.

JOE BRADLEY
"Untitled," 2010
Canvas and painted frame
109 5/8 by 76 1/2 in. 278.4 by 194.3 cm.

JOE BRADLEY
"Untitled," 2010
Canvas and painted frame
97 1/2 by 103 1/2 in. 247.7 by 262.9 cm.

JOE BRADLEY
"Untitled," 2010
Canvas
Diptych, overall: 97 by 100 in. 246.4 by 254 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Untitled," 2010
Mixed media on canvas
88 by 77 in. 223.5 by 195.6 cm.

JOE BRADLEY
"Untitled," 2010
Oil on canvas
Diptych, overall: 94 by 84 in. 238.8 by 213.4 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Last Optical Illusion of 2009," 2006-09
Mixed media on canvas
73 1/2 by 57 3/4 in. 186.7 by 146.7 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Self Portrait Smoking Pot (In The Style Of Joe Bradley)," 2009-10
Oil on canvas
45 by 37 in. 114.3 by 94 cm.

CHRIS MARTIN
"Portrait of Joe Bradley," 2009
Oil on canvas
45 1/8 by 37 1/8 in. 114.6 by 94.3 cm.

Our House
2010
Rug, desk, paint

Teenage Spaceship
2010
Jeep cab, steel, plexiglass and paint

Ashfield Lake
2010
Paint on tabletop and plywood

Installation view
MACRO, Rome
2011

Installation view, Indian Summer
Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
2010

On By
2011
Plexiglas and steel
82 by 107 3/4 by 36 in. 208.3 by 273.7 by 91.4 cm.

8pm
2011
Camper chunk, steel, plexiglas, and paint
41 1/2 by 52 by 48 in. 105.4 by 132.1 by 121.9 cm.

Breakfast
2011
Camper chunk, steel, plexiglas, and paint
77 1/4 by 107 by 93 in. 196.2 by 271.8 by 236.2 cm.

Coffin
2011
Camper chunk, steel, plexiglas,and paint
59 1/4 by 77 1/2 by 41 3/8 in. 150.5 by 196.9 by 105.1 cm.

Sunderland Drive
2011
Spray-paint and latex on door and camper roof
38 1/2 by 32 5/8 by 2 1/8 in. 97.8 by 82.9 by 5.4 cm.

September Wedding
2011
Spray-paint and latex on plywood
48 by 42 1/2 in. 121.9 by 108 cm.

Empty bottle, broken heart and you're still on my mind
2011
Spray-paint and latex on plywood
62 5/8 by 57 1/2 in. 159.1 by 146.1 cm.

Good Morning (November)
2011
Camper chunk, plexiglas, steel and paint
109 by 85 by 94 3/4 in. 276.9 by 215.9 by 240.7 cm.

Installation View
The Power Station, Dallas, TX

Detail

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