Brad Silk

Swan is my Co-Pilot

Here is a super quick update:

One of my designs for Neighbor Hoodies is on the FourFour blog.

Bends Back On curated by Brad Silk

Bends Back On

September 6 through October 12, 2008
Opening Reception, Saturday September 6, 6 to 8p.

Number 35 is pleased to present Bends Back On, a two-person video and photography exhibition curated by Brad Silk. Bends Back On discusses the relations between self and society from the position of artist in reflection and artist as commenter. These artists develop a circular relationship, like the sociological condition known as reflexivity, where observer or actions implicate findings. In their visual analysis we discover the artists' fingerprint on society as well as the inverse.

Robert Dupree uses his body as a tool in his Torture You/Torture Me series, where we join him in discovering the limits of body and mind. Documenting acts of sadism and struggle, he grasps at social oddity within normality. Next to his still images, Dupree stacks five discarded television sets, playing videos that invite the viewer into his journey. Dupree travels through pain and whimsy in photography and video with a humorous yet concerning eye on modern society.

Claudia Saimbert studies the connections found in diverse backgrounds. Her raw portraits of young women on top of mounds of earth, call upon the idea of first female. Accompanying her portraits, Saimbert installs a mound which emits an haunting sound collage, woven together from subject interviews. Seemingly sterile, Saimbert's images depict the deep wounds within a diverse sisterhood, which she explores, finding similarities in varied experiences.

Number 35 Is Located at 39 Essex Street between Grand and Hester in New York City. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday, 12 to 6 and by appointment. For more information, please contact Brad Silk at 212 388 9311, bradsilk@gmail.com or Cindy Rucker at cindy@numberthirtyfive.com

Recent Work

This is my latest work, a commission, titled Reach Around. This is a departure from my previous portfolio discussed in the blog. However, Reach Around is a lot closer to what my sketches have long looked like. For about five years I have been battling with a way to combine abstraction and figures in a pleasing yet thoughtful manner. My recent digital collages have inspired me to peruse this style. Where I've always seen the need of struggle, in order to bring my initial drawings to a "higher" form.

These collages are created using impulses that deny me the fear of failure, which I hope keep them fresh and interesting. The friend whom this collage, This Is Only A Censorship, was created for helped me peruse regain motivation. I trust his opinion, as he knows most everything about art, and with some kind words he suggested I continue on this path.
The inspiration for me came from a very unexpected place. Growing up in Massachusetts, the artifacts have always been available to me. The Museum of Fine Art in Boston is filled almost entirely with ancient artifacts and documents. Unfortunately this created a disregard for its value. That is until I saw the many Rubin Museum posters lining the New York transit. I think it was seeing the works out of their given place. Out from their archetypal residence, the images took on a new meaning. On visiting the Rubin, I could really see the way these many artists depicted the stories within an abstracted space provided a lot of answers to the doubt I felt in my own art. Suddenly it became obvious that I could use my narrative nature to compose a painting that had no boundaries--That is to say, I could provide as much or as little information in each piece, disregarding modern story telling.
Now I will be working on few pieces that touch upon collage, narration, and my history.

Chinnamasta, the Severed Head Goddess

Labels: collage, drawings, paintings

The Move

There will be a serious laps in my posts-I have moved to Brooklyn and am working as a Gallery Director in the Lower East Side. I'll get work up as soon as possible.

This is an odd post, the first painting was worked on most of the summer. Since then, I've stopped working on it. I was working toward a new style of combined imagry; inspired by double exposures and photominipulation, below are examples my process.

(referance material: Claudia Saimbert photography of me in my mens line)

Around September I stopped working on this. I just grew bored with it--a horrible habit of mine. A worse habit, I painted right over it a few days later. However, this time it worked in my favor. I really enjoy the new series. Right before I had to move, I began concentration on blurred, shallow, and singular imagry. I've done a few drawings and here is a painting done from a drawing:

I plan on continuing this series and have a few drawings going that I will post soon.

Labels: paintings

Senior Thesis Show

So it has been almost six months since my Senior Thesis Show, but I finally got around to making a blog for my work. This is a collection of my work exhibited at Montserrat 301 Gallery to finalize my BFA program at the school.
This first one has also been exhibited at the Copley Society in their 18th Annual Student competition