Andre Bradley graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Image Text Ithaca and the Rhode Island School of Design's M.F.A. programs.
While at the Rhode Island School of Design, he received the T.C. Colley Award for photographic excellence. While at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Bradley was named a George Ciscle Scholar in curatorial practice. Bradley's first photo-book, Dark Archives, I-41, was shortlisted for the Photo-Text Book Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles and the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First Photo Book Award. Bradley’s work has been collected by public and private art institutions and libraries including the RISD Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Scripps College’s Ella Strong Denison Library Rare Book Room
“As an artist, I explore memory, identity, and place. I use image-text and curation to imagine a world where art and social awareness are kin. A world where creators use media to merge private and public spheres. My recent projects pose questions about authorship, spectatorship, and traditional forms of distribution. The histories, codes, and values of Black individuals, the art world, and academia frame my work. In it, I address societal issues. I mine my autobiography and family archives. I sample popular music and literature. My work speaks through and comments on contemporary art discourse, academia, and publishing. My practice is not an intellectual exercise. It is a personal, self-preserving engagement with the world.”
CV
INSTAGRAM
ART:
2020-PRESENT
2010-2020
Bad Selections
Digitally Altered JPG
Inkjet Prints
Digitally Altered JPG
Inkjet Prints
2014
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In moments of stress our bodies react. Physically they signal growth or deterioration. Sixth grade was an extremely stressful year for me. The stress I experienced caused my alopecia areata (AA) to flare up. AA is an autoimmune disease in which hair is lost, usually from the scalp, due to the body’s failure to recognize “self.” The body destroys its own tissue as if it were an invader. My hair began to fall out, and my peers made fun of me. They brought patches and glue to class.
In Bad Selections (AA) 2014, I appropriate images from barbershop charts. Placing them onto a blue backdrop in Photoshop, I crudely select fields of the face to delete. The resulting image is graphically arresting as the sky blue seems to emerge through the distorted face. The lightness of the colors and the floating nature of the head suggest a negated body consumed by blue. Each portrait is a broken person, violently disfigured against the backdrop of innocence and youth. In sixth grade, I began to learn about the dynamics of educational institutions—where I did or did not fit in them, based on my perceived defects. The educational institutions that ostensibly empower us can sometimes make us feel incompetent and incapable.
In moments of stress our bodies react. Physically they signal growth or deterioration. Sixth grade was an extremely stressful year for me. The stress I experienced caused my alopecia areata (AA) to flare up. AA is an autoimmune disease in which hair is lost, usually from the scalp, due to the body’s failure to recognize “self.” The body destroys its own tissue as if it were an invader. My hair began to fall out, and my peers made fun of me. They brought patches and glue to class.
In Bad Selections (AA) 2014, I appropriate images from barbershop charts. Placing them onto a blue backdrop in Photoshop, I crudely select fields of the face to delete. The resulting image is graphically arresting as the sky blue seems to emerge through the distorted face. The lightness of the colors and the floating nature of the head suggest a negated body consumed by blue. Each portrait is a broken person, violently disfigured against the backdrop of innocence and youth. In sixth grade, I began to learn about the dynamics of educational institutions—where I did or did not fit in them, based on my perceived defects. The educational institutions that ostensibly empower us can sometimes make us feel incompetent and incapable.