Katherine Bradford paints swimmers, superheroes and ships adrift in glowing fields of colour, building scenes that feel both entirely ordinary and cosmic. Working in thin, layered acrylic that lets light rise up from underneath the canvas, Bradford places her figures in water, outer space or open sky.
Bradford came to painting relatively late in life and did not receive wide recognition until her 60s and 70s, but she has since become one of the most closely watched figurative painters in America. Printmaking, including handfinished monotypes made in close collaboration with master printers, has become an increasingly important part of her practice in recent years.
Bradford came to painting relatively late in life and did not receive wide recognition until her 60s and 70s, but she has since become one of the most closely watched figurative painters in America. Printmaking, including handfinished monotypes made in close collaboration with master printers, has become an increasingly important part of her practice in recent years.
Summary
Katherine Bradford paints swimmers, superheroes and ships adrift in glowing fields of colour, building scenes that feel both entirely ordinary and cosmic. Working in thin, layered acrylic that lets light rise up from underneath the canvas, Bradford places her figures in water, outer space or open sky.
Bradford came to painting relatively late in life and did not receive wide recognition until her 60s and 70s, but she has since become one of the most closely watched figurative painters in America. Printmaking, including handfinished monotypes made in close collaboration with master printers, has become an increasingly important part of her practice in recent years.
Bradford came to painting relatively late in life and did not receive wide recognition until her 60s and 70s, but she has since become one of the most closely watched figurative painters in America. Printmaking, including handfinished monotypes made in close collaboration with master printers, has become an increasingly important part of her practice in recent years.
Artworks by Katherine Bradford
About Katherine Bradford
Biography
About Katherine Bradford
Katherine Bradford was born in 1942 in New York City and raised in Connecticut. She earned a degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1964, then moved to Maine in the early 1970s. Bradford co-founded the Union of Maine Visual Artists and began painting seriously for the first time, before moving back to New York in 1980 and later earning an MFA from SUNY Purchase in 1987.
Swimmers, superheroes and a slow rise
Bradford's recurring cast of swimmers and bathers drawn from summers spent on the coast of Maine. Alongside these swimmers sit a series of deflated, ageing superheroes she introduced in the early 2010s, their capes sagging and their bodies softened rather than triumphant. Critics have described her work as balancing the representational, the abstract and the metaphorical all at once, and Bradford herself has said she is less interested in resolving a painting's meaning than in keeping several possibilities open within it.
Bradford’s recognition built slowly: she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 and a Joan Mitchell Foundation award in 2012. Her first solo museum survey, Flying Woman, did not open until 2022, when she was in her 80s.
Prints made by hand
Bradford's prints extend the same painterly touch onto paper rather than simply reproducing her canvases. Her Divers series begins as a printed impression before Bradford handpaints acrylic details onto each sheet, ensuring every print in the edition is subtly unique. Her earlier bodies of work, including a suite of etchings and monotypes, follow the same instinct for treating a print as a fresh surface to work upon rather than a fixed copy of an existing painting.
Biography
About Katherine Bradford
Katherine Bradford was born in 1942 in New York City and raised in Connecticut. She earned a degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1964, then moved to Maine in the early 1970s. Bradford co-founded the Union of Maine Visual Artists and began painting seriously for the first time, before moving back to New York in 1980 and later earning an MFA from SUNY Purchase in 1987.
Swimmers, superheroes and a slow rise
Bradford's recurring cast of swimmers and bathers drawn from summers spent on the coast of Maine. Alongside these swimmers sit a series of deflated, ageing superheroes she introduced in the early 2010s, their capes sagging and their bodies softened rather than triumphant. Critics have described her work as balancing the representational, the abstract and the metaphorical all at once, and Bradford herself has said she is less interested in resolving a painting's meaning than in keeping several possibilities open within it.
Bradford’s recognition built slowly: she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 and a Joan Mitchell Foundation award in 2012. Her first solo museum survey, Flying Woman, did not open until 2022, when she was in her 80s.
Prints made by hand
Bradford's prints extend the same painterly touch onto paper rather than simply reproducing her canvases. Her Divers series begins as a printed impression before Bradford handpaints acrylic details onto each sheet, ensuring every print in the edition is subtly unique. Her earlier bodies of work, including a suite of etchings and monotypes, follow the same instinct for treating a print as a fresh surface to work upon rather than a fixed copy of an existing painting.