Mark Bradford creates large-scale abstract paintings, collages, and installations that reflect his personal and social engagement with issues of race and class. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bradford began his artistic career in his mother’s beauty salon, where he experimented with end papers, the small tissue papers used in hairdressing. These and other types of paper—posters, maps, comics, newspapers, and more—form the foundation of the layered constructions of paintings for which Bradford has become best known. He begins by adhering images selected for their historical significance onto canvas, then outlines them with rope or caulk before obscuring the image with different types of paper. Bradford then erodes the built surface, revealing the intersections between layers, creating a uniquely abstract approach to painting.

–From the Glenstone Field Guide