Elaine Bradford

Recent Work

August 24 – September 21, 2007

Organized by Dana Turkovic

In Elaine Bradford's recent sculptural work she explores implications associated with the handmade. Her sculptures suggest an enthusiastic hobbyist, pairing carefully crafted sweaters, meticulously constructed of yarn, with taxidermied animal heads. The works are homey in their conception, and are both warm and blank, sad and amusing while displaying a labor-intensive craft that teeters on the edge of absurdity. Exploring how each could live in a domestic setting, she works to conceal and reveal these forms simultaneously by pairing peculiar moments with familiar surroundings. The combination of materials and her imagery blend masculine and feminine associations, highlighting the social commentary inherent in her production as they both come from a world of home craft, leisure activity and sport ultimately infusing these everyday objects with a surreal comfortability. The act of making sweaters brings to mind hours of labor, she is particularly interested in referencing something that is unwanted and unneeded, with concepts of comfort and warmth. Her work evokes traditionally feminine pursuits such as quilting, yet her imagery would most readily invoke unsettling masculinity. Using crochet, Bradford has also made sweaters for items including trees and vacuum cleaners. Utilizing familiar items and referencing the domestic, she introduces the viewer to an uncanny reality that is strange but equally morbid and pathetic but also brings them new life and altering the way we view these truncated forms.

Biography: Elaine Bradford received her Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Texas - Austin in 2000. She received her MFA in 2003 from California Institute of the Arts. In 2006, Bradford had her first solo exhibition titled Outside In, Okay Mountain, Austin, TX. Her group exhibitions include BEAST, Finesilver Gallery, Houston, TX, 2006; BMG Artists' Annual, BLK/MRKT Gallery, Culver City, CA, 2006; Domestic Camouflage, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.; 5x7, Arthouse, Austin, TX, 2005; Texas Biennial, Austin, TX;, 2005 Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA, 2004; In the Nursery, Armory Northwest, Pasadena, CA, 2003.