Carving, digging, sanding, scraping and peeling aren’t standard words associated with canvas art, but that’s why Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford received a three-month residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Artists are constantly searching for ways to distinguish themselves from the norm, but Bradford wasn’t searching for a break when he dug up his passion. Now, that passion resides on Ohio State’s campus.

According to New York Magazine, Bradford worked in his mother’s beauty salon before landing a spot in LA’s Deep River gallery in 1998. His experience at the salon extended creativity to his art by connecting racial politics to black women’s hair trends throughout several pieces.

His focus took a turn in 2004 after Eungie Joo, the curator for a show at Redcat gallery in LA, suggested he start working on bigger pieces. Because bigger meant more money, Joo bought Bradford’s first canvas.

Bradford’s large abstract collages are filled by his findings in random city sites. Paper is his favorite ingredient.

Almost every person in the world can relate to paper in some way. People think of paper in different ways and its meanings are diverse, Bradford said.

For one painting in particular, “James Brown is Dead,” Bradford stripped an entire wall of paper advertisements in South Central LA to use as his initial layer of the piece.

The peeling and chiseling to remove the wall marked the end of an era, much like James Brown’s death.

“James Brown’s career (spans) so many James Browns — the free James Brown, the crackhead James Brown, the social-civil rights James Brown, the performative Little Richard James Brown. I kept thinking, well which James Brown is dead,” Bradford said during a cell phone audio tour about the selected piece.

Bradford was chosen to fulfill the Wexner Center Residency Award in Visual Arts because his works provide a refreshing examination of the United States economic pluralities characterized by social inequalities.

The residency extends from Saturday to August 15, 2010. His exhibition inside the Wexner Center includes 10 years of his work plus the debut of recent pieces funded by his residency.

Bradford compares his paintings to conflicts between individuals in an abstract manner.
“It’s like if there is a conflict between two people, then everyone in the room reenacts the conflict,” Bradford said. “After the 14th reenactment, what does (it) even mean?”

The transition from each room in his exhibition projects a different mood for the spectator. Although the transition isn’t dramatic, the onlooker can feel subtle changes as the concept of each piece flows together.

Bradford said he believes art depicts emotion, but it doesn’t actively try to project emotion from the artist to the painting.

He doesn’t believe in the theatrical perspective of art, as in trying to throw emotions into a piece, Bradford said.

The Wexner Center will be holding Super Sunday this weekend from 12 to 5 p.m. There will be activities related to Bradford’s work. Admission is free.

After his exhibition at the Wexner Center, his work will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.