TBD
Elaine Bradford
Mind Meld
I am a collector; I mine thrift and antique stores to find discarded pieces of people’s lives. The collectibles, which have personal histories that have long been forgotten, are transformed. The pieces in this exhibition are representations of relationships. Found family photos have been repurposed. The extensions of embroidery represent hopes, thoughts and fears that can bind people together, or tear them apart. The added fibers are portrayals of being wrapped up in another person, and the distance or closeness that can be created between one another. They talk about longing and unrequited love. I am taking strangers discarded objects, connecting them with craftwork, and creating personal portraits. I see some of myself in each of these objects. I also see some of everyone else.
About the artist:
Elaine Bradford lives and works in Houston, TX. She holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (2003) and a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin (2000). Her work has been included in shows at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, IL; Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY; Handmade in America Gallery in Asheville, NC; and Centre Culturel Aragon in Oyonnax, France. Select solo shows have been at The Picture Gallery at Saint Gaudens Memorial, Cornish, NH; ArtLeague Houston, Houston, TX; and Hunt Gallery at Webster University, St. Louis, MO. She is a founding member BOX 13 ArtSpace, an innovative artist run studio and gallery space in Houston. She was a resident artist at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2010. In 2011 she completed a permanent civic art commission for the City of Houston at Vinson Neighborhood Library. In 2017, she is working with Houston poet Sara Cress on a project called Routine Fables, where they create a “sculpture poem” every week of the year. Bradford is represented by Art Palace Gallery in Houston, TX.
More information can be found at elainebradford.com.