Exhibitions

MARK BRADLEY-SHOUP: AFTER THE RECONSTRUCTION

David Lusk Gallery Nashville / 516 Hagan St. October 10, 2017 - November 11, 2017

Mark Bradley-Shoup

This fall, David Lusk Gallery Nashville presents Chattanooga artist Mark Bradley-Shoup’s solo exhibition After the Reconstruction.

Bradley-Shoup approaches his daily studio practice from different visions and routines to produce images. Far from a schizophrenic process, the intention of both his abstract and representational work addresses his career-long theme of expansions and recession, consumption and growth, and the elegance of devastation.

After the Reconstruction responds to the built form, partly for its architectural purpose and partly for the dialogue that these forms have with one another and with the space in which they inhabit. Of his paintings, Bradley-Shoup says, “I believe in the construction of a painting, laying down a framework for which all subsequent layers will have support to rest upon. The concept of ‘building’ a painted image/form allows a more sincere discourse with my interest in the constructed landscape with my fascination of structural form.”

Masking tape, rulers and x-acto blades are just a few of the tools that Bradley-Shoup utilizes to create his works on paper and canvas. Photographs of urban and rural landscapes are deconstructed to build up texture and emphasize certain angles and colors. The result is a work void of any photorealistic qualities. This allows him to effectively play with negative space and flat geometric shapes and suggest issues of our economic culture.

Bradley-Shoup received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission, among other awards, and continues to participate in group and solo exhibitions across the Southeast.