Joe Bradley (American, b. 1975) is a painter who cycles through recognizable modes of twentieth-century abstraction, from hard-edged Minimalism to gestural, Abstract Expressionist-inflected painting. Based in New York City and Amagansett, he first gained recognition with his Schmagoo Paintings (2008), invented symbols and doodles drawn in grease pencil on raw, unprimed canvas.
Bradley earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999 and had his first New York gallery show in 2003. In 2006 he had his first solo exhibition at MoMA PS1, showing boldly painted monochromatic canvases arranged in modular, geometric formations that evoke architectural structures and human or robotic figures. His inclusion in the Whitney Biennial, co-curated by Shamim Momin, helped launch his career. He later had a mid-career survey at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, on the occasion of which he spoke with the artist Carroll Dunham, and in 2018 showed new paintings and drawings, “Day World”, at Gagosian in London.
