Slater B. Bradley: The Secret Key
opening 11.11.2016
dates 12.11.2016 – 11.01.17
The Secret Key is a collaboration between the Berlin based American artist Slater B. Bradley and Zuecca Projects. Curated by Alessandro Possati, the exhibition focuses on Bradley’s current “Shield” series and hosts a three-day program of consciousness workshops, happenings and performances, revolving around the notion of expansion of spirit and mind within the physical and material. Zuecca Projects aims to expand the scale of the exhibition during the 57th Venice Biennale in May 2017.
Install shot “The Secret Key” at Zuecca Project Space. Image courtesy of the artist and Zuecca Projects
As departure point for The Secret Key – an experience-based project – Bradley refers to the end of the Mayan Calendar on 21.12.12. The work makes an inquiry into the shift in the nature of human consciousness and spirituality within art in today´s transformative times of social uncertainty, artificial intelligence, lack of belief, and overabundance of images and information.
Bradley´s work came to international attention through such shows as his solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2005) or his participation in the Whitney Biennial, New York (2004). Since 2015, he has created a new series of abstract works oscillating between paintings and photographic images shot by the artist called “Shields”. Bradley incorporates the logic of picture making and photographic narratives as a conceptual backbone to impose an intuitive mark-making-technique across the picture plane field.
“Ninth Wave Solar Shield” by Slater B. Bradley. Courtesy of Slater Bradley Studio, Berlin and Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon
For The Secret Key, the artist has created a set of two “Shields” in gold and silver permanent marker. Hidden narratives incorporate the 12 stages of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, echoing themes Bradley explored earlier through his shadow work in the “Doppelganger” (1999-2012) series. The artist intention is to focus on the spiritual dimension of the work; including the realms of Shamanism, as for Bradley “The ‘Shields’ are sized in the Golden Ratio and playing with numerological codes and patterns. They are in harmony with the frequency of Natural Law and Source and ‘offer’ spiritual protection”.
In Bradley´s work, the iconic and hero-figure in itself has evolved from tragic to epic, blending popular culture and the mass media with the realm of quantum physics, spirituality and consciousness.
Image 1: “Luna9 Wave Shield” by Slater B. Bradley. Courtesy of Slater Bradley Studio
Slater B. Bradley: The Secret Key
Opening: November 11, 2016 | 07.00 PM
November 12, 2016 > January 11, 2017 | 10 AM – 06 PM
Closed on Monday. Free Entry
Zuecca Project Space | Giudecca 33, Venice