I Will Vent My Anger in Terrifying Books, 2012

Bradford’s paintings begin with layer upon layer of paper from billboards, posters, and flyers scavenged from the streets surrounding South LA. However, the legibility of this printed matter is obfuscated through the artist’s process of tearing, reconfiguring, affixing, and sanding, then carving deep grooves into the heavily worked surface. The resulting work exists both as a document of the artist’s process and as an abstracted archive of the promotional materials circulating in his neighborhood. Though these paintings are decidedly abstract, they also mimic processes associated with human, industrial, and natural deterioration —such as sun-bleaching, peeling, dirtying—that progressively deteriorate printed matter found on the streets. As such, they simulate the layered and repetitive language, texture, and colors of contemporary commercial life.