Self Portrait 2013
Copyright © 2018 Clay Bradbury, All rights reserved.
about
Clay Bradbury is a visual artist living and working in Perth Western Australia. Painting with oil on wood, his works are predominantly disappearing ‘urban landscapes’ and ‘object portraiture’.
In 2012, Clay shared the Kurb Gallery with Peter Matulich where he presented his first exhibition; roadside. Since then he has had three solo exhibitions; wayside (2014), common place (2016) and sidewalk (2018). His work received prizes in the 2015, 2017 and 2018 Bayswater Art Awards, the 2019 Bassendean Art Awards, and he was the winner of the 2016 acquisitive Bassendean Hawaiian Award.
the work
Clay’s work is an expression of his relationship with the city in which he lives. The work explores themes of isolation, functionality, and decay via depictions of common utilitarian objects and infrastructure related landscapes.
Plato saw objects as copies of a perfect or ‘divine’ model. Physically speaking paintings are reflections, and are thereby dimensional reductions, of the subject. If it is the artist's role to attempt to express the pure essence, or idea, of the subject, in a Platonic sense the intention becomes one of elevating the object beyond its physicality and to capture some part of its ‘oneness’.
By separating objects and buildings from their contexts Clay imbues his subjects with a heightened sense of individuality. The paintings themselves transcend the divide to become objects in their own right. Where once the subject was merely a representative of a broader group, or a symbol of its function, it here becomes highlighted as a single entity with its own personality.
contact
0404 701 355
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