Image Splimage

Image Splimage: Recent Paintings by Brad Biancardi

January 15 - February 17, 2009
Opening reception: January 15, 6-9 pm

EASTERN EXPANSION
244 W 31st Street Chicago Illinois, 60616

773.837.0145



About the work
Brad Biancardi's work begins with direct, observational drawings of specific spaces or objects that carry personal importance. Working from observation is the most important mode of informing his work. Though they begin from observational drawings, they eventually abandon their dependence on them and enter an area that exists somewhere between invention and representation. For this reason Brad describes his studio practice as “referential.” Sometimes he begins with a space, sometimes he attempts to subvert a pop-cultural icon in order to transform them into something more personal and elusive, i.e. bikes, the spacecraft from the Star Wars films, governmental buildings, etc.

The mathematical system of linear perspective is one formal tool within which Brad's explorations occur; color is another. He composes his imagery based on a symmetrical model with full knowledge that asymmetrical nuances are inevitable and will bring life to the work.

Brad also desires to retain a direct connection to art history by utterly consuming the potential of basic formal tools. As contemporary culture inevitably permeates his working process, he attempts to consume it, contemplate it and eventually either abandon it or use it. It is an ever-present concern of his to be equally aware of both contemporary culture and historical knowledge. Brad finds fault in the painter who feels embedded in twentieth century theoretical matters. At the same time he thinks that contemporary art is becoming more concerned with ideas of market and fashion, while moving further away from an artistic utopia.


Biography:

Brad Biancardi received his MFA from the University of Washington. From 2005 – 2007 he was a member the Seattle based artist collective Crawl Space: Artist-Run-Gallery. He has exhibited his paintings and drawings in Seattle at Platform Gallery, the Lawrimore Project, Soil, and was an artist-member of the Crawl Space gallery from 2005 through 2007. He has exhibited in Chicago at the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Zhou Brothers Art Center. He teaches at Gallery 37, was a visiting artist at Harold Washington College, and has taught at the University of Washington, Pratt School of Fine Art in Seattle, the Northern Indiana Artists Association and at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago. His studio is currently rejecting him like a virus.