Mark Bradford / Street Level

My mom, who is getting her masters in Fibers right now, is working a lot with maps, map imagery and ideas in all sorts of ways. My mother is the one who inadvertently taught me that everything is art, and my perception of the world around me growing up was shaped by that. Lately I've been paying a ton of attention to maps due to her ongoing projects, and ran into Mark Bradford's pieces in a show called "Street Level" at the Boston ICA. He is an L.A. mixed media artist who works a lot with street maps. He plays with vivid color and lines using pieces of old posters and other materials. His work is shockingly gorgeous from a far, and becomes an intricate maze up close. I could have looked at his pieces for hours.

Honestly I haven't been attracted to an exhibit about "street art" for a good, long time. Frankly, it gets redundant, overdone, and never seems to be anything "fresh" enough to catch my attention. Living in Philadephia, we are surronded not only by graffiti on the streets, but graffiti art in the galleries. It fun and bright but we have all seen a ton of it. "Street Level" showed me that there could be something new to say about city art.

Watch this video to get a better view of his work, and the work of William Cordova and Robin Rhode (also excellent artists, the three of them were perfect to collaborate on this show)- who also make up "Street Level". The showed video work, sculpture, drawings, and paintings.