Mark Bradford's Performance and Persecution at Hauser & Wirth

You Don’t Have to Tell Me Twice, currently on view at Hauser & Wirth (13 April–26 July, 2023), shows new directions in Mark Bradford‘s profoundly introspective practice.

While the LA-born artist’s painterly collages—surfaces created through the laborious layering of paper, cord, and caulk, which are variously carved, shredded, power-washed, and sanded—are familiar, works on view reveal the artist’s recent attention towards the figure.

Spectres of animals—spotted jaguars, monkeys, crows—present themselves like fever dreams in brilliant hues. They’re interspersed with abstracted plant species that shift in and out of focus in lush and textured tapestry works such as Jungle Jungle (2021) and Johnny the Jaguar (2023).

Two self-portraits made 50 years apart present the artist’s own body in the exhibition. Larger-than-life sculpture Drop Dead, 2023 (2023) and Super 8 film Death Drop (1973) are almost identical depictions of the artist’s falling body, navigating the Black body at the junction between performance and persecution.

Works on view move away from the bird’s-eye view cityscapes suggested by some of Bradford’s best known canvases towards a perspective that puts the viewer at eye level, increasing the scope of interpersonal connections in his practice—one that excavates the emotional and political terrain with equal enthusiasm.

Main image: Mark Bradford, Fire Fire (2021) (detail). Mixed media on canvas. 3 panels, overall: 346.4 x 687.7 x 5.7 cm. © Mark Bradford. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, Hong Kong/Los Angeles/London/New York/Zurich. Photo: Joshua White.