- Brad Downey
Brad Downey (born
1980 inLouisville, Kentucky ) is an American artist. He usesfilm ,sculpture ,painting anddrawing to reflect on concepts aboutthe Establishment versus theaudience . Downey currently lives inBerlin .Biography
Downey earned a
fine art master's degree in painting and sculpture from London'sSlade School of Art , where he studied underBruce Mclean . He grew up in aUnited States Marine Corps family traversing towns across the United States, soaking up influences of diverse surroundings that would later add to his perspective.Pratt Institute drew him to New York City in 1998, where he first cultivated his study of fine art. Stimulated by the buzz of the urbane, he sought out alternate methods for depicting his environment, deciding on a film degree for formal study.In 2008 Downey was chosen by the city of Louisville to be awarded the titleKentucky Colonel [ [http://www.braddowney.com/images/kentucky.jpg] ] .Career
His first feature length film, "
Public Discourse ", a documentary aboutstreet art , proved a pivotal point in his artistic endeavors. The film has been screened at over 70 venues around the world including theInstitute of Contemporary Arts in London and theCopenhagen Documentary Film Festival . It includes work by street artists such as Swoon,Obey Giant ,Revs , Nato, Desa,Ellen Harvey , JJ Veronis, and Johnny Swing from theRivington school , and features music byJapanther . Public Discourse was distributed byVideo Data Bank . "Public Discourse" has also compelled Downey to take an active role in front of the camera, focusing on how to use aminimalist work to enhance people's overall sensation of their surroundings.Downey initially gained international recognition working collaboratively with
Darius Jones A.K.A. Verbs (an American graffiti artist fromCincinnati, Ohio ). As a team they developed a new style of concept/image-based roller-paint graffiti and a unique illegal site-specific brand of three-dimensional sculptures, where functional traffic symbols become humanized. A novel entitledThe Adventures Of Darius And Downey As Told To Ed Zipco , was published byThames and Hudson in 2008 about their collaborative work spanning from 1999 to 2005.Downey regularly lectures about unsanctioned public artwork. He is exploring its adaptation in traditional gallery settings in London, Berlin and New York. He was named as one of the
ArtReview 25 MA graduates to watch in 2005. He has been featured in "The New York Times ", "Creative Review ", "Atlanta Journal Constitution " and "The Guardian ", among others. He has exhibited in venues such asUrbis museum inManchester ,Tate Modern ,Kunstlerhaus Bethanian in Berlin, theBasil Art Fair in Miami , the ICA in London, andMass MOCA in the USA,Peacock Visual Arts , inScotland ,Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche inOsnabruck ,Kunstcentret Silkeborg Bad , in Denmark. In 2007 Downey was awardedSEEDA Arts Plus award for a commission with theTour De France .In 2008, Downey sprayed green paint on the shopping windows of Berlins historical
KaDeWe mall, which the owners reported to the police as an act of vandalism. However, Downey had been contracted by theLacoste clothing brand (along with 11 other street artists) for an exhibtion at KaDeWe celebrating the 75th anniversary of the brand, and he maintained that he was just fulfilling his contract.die tageszeitung speculated that the incident might have been a media stunt by Lacoste. [ [http://www.art-magazin.de/szene/6890/brad_downey_lacoste_kadewe Kadewe - Art-Magazine] [http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/print-archiv/printressorts/digi-artikel/?ressort=bl&dig=2008%2F05%2F30%2Fa0156&cHash=47d540efa3 Kadewe - Taz] (german)]References
Further reading
*Zipco, Ed. "The Adventures of Darius and Downey: And other True Tales of Street Art, As Told to Ed Zipco", Thames&Hudson (2008) ISBN 0500513953.
External links
* [http://www.braddowney.com/ Brad Downey]
* [http://www.reinking-projekte.com reinkingPROJEKTE]
* [http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?DOWNEYB Brad Downey] in theVideo Data Bank
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIbZdfEXOmg Sculpture (Tour de France) on BBC]Press
* [http://gothamist.com/2007/12/20/mysterious_tall.php tall bench]
* [http://www.peacockvisualarts.com/archive/86/new-york-artist-cuts-giant-heart-out-of-aberdeen-scaffolding heart cut]
* [http://www.tip-berlin.de/kultur-und-freizeit/neu-berlin-brad-downey Tip Interview] (german)
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