Untitled

At first glance, Joe Bradley's abstract, monochromatic canvases look like experiments in Minimalism; longer viewing, however, reveals surprising levels of figuration and what Bradley calls an intentional shoddiness that points to a dissatisfaction with the narrative of twentieth-century painting. His depictions of people, animals, places, and objects are visually distilled rectangles of colour and blocky forms that communicate an overall sense of theater and movement.
While operating in a lightheartedly slapdash mode, Bradleys paintings also reflect a thoughtful attention to the study of colour and the visual range achievable through presenting colors alone or juxtaposing them in infinite combinations. In particular, his work harks back to Josef Albers color theories about the physical versus psychic effects of color. Though his installations have a certain geometric precision, Bradley hopes his paintings visual economy will give the viewer a psychological charge that is as oddball as it is formally engineered.
Trinie Dalton, Whitney Biennial 2008, Huldisch, H., Momin, S. M., 'Joe Bradley', 2008 Biennial Exhibition, (New York: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 106-107.