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Bradley Wester, Two Princes, 2017. Velvet ropes and disco balls on fake fur carpet; 60 × 36 × 6 in.
‘Two Princes’ was exhibited within a body work called ‘DISCOurse #3: Velvet Rope,’ the third iteration of an investigation of queer shine since 2012.
Part of my collection. The work was purchased from the gallery of artist and friend Sarah Peter: Van Doren Waxter.
Bradley Wester, visual artist and writer, born and raised in New Orleans, is based in New York and Rhode Island. Bradley’s artwork evolved out of performance, then painting, into a hybrid-practice that combines painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, and photographic digital imaging into larger works/installations. His current body of work, DISCOurse, examines the ‘Queer’ utopian impulse of early Disco via the Disco Ball’s fracturing and reordering of the ‘Straight’ reflection. His recent solos include DISCOurse #2 and DISCOurse #3, at Pavel Zoubok in New York and Yellow Peril Gallery in Providence RI respectively. Previously he worked on a ten-year project called, “Ephemera & Culture: Italy, Turkey, and Japan-a Trilogy,” where he lived and worked in three disparate but geographically symmetrical cultures, resulting in three connected bodies of work. Other solo & group shows in the U.S. & Europe include, Margalef & Gipponi in Antwerp, PIASA Paris, Lyonswier Gallery and Artists Space in New York, and Future Tenant in Pittsburgh. Awards include, Specialist Fulbright to Kyoto Japan, two MacDowell Fellowships, and a Pollock-Krasner Grant. Visiting Artist/Lecturer credits include: CalArts, RISD, Dartmouth College, NYU, Tulane, Sint Lucas Antwerp, Kyoto University of Art & Design, The American Academy in Rome, and Ringling College of Art & Design.
Bradley has recently completed his first book, a creative nonfiction memoir, Growing Up Under Water, represented by Paula Munier at Talcott Notch Literary. Its first chapter, “Brothers Katrina”, won the 2016 Fresher Writing Prize for Best Creative Nonfiction. He read another chapter from the book at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the exhibition symposium for “Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983.” Other writings can be found on his website.