Katherine Bradford & Chris Martin

Brigitte Mulholland is honoured and delighted to present Saturn Swimmers: Katherine Bradford and Chris Martin. This historic two-person exhibition is long overdue, embracing the over forty-year history of friendship, admiration, and early collaboration between these painters.

In the early 1980s, Bradford and Martin both eschewed familiar trajectories, instead embracing the creative life as painters in New York City. The two were early pioneers of the Williamsburg artistic scene, and even shared a studio in what is now one of the most desirable and lucrative parts of Brooklyn. At the time of their arrival, it was a barren industrial zone, yet ripe with creativity and artists making paintings shivering next to space heaters. In their shared studio space, Bradford and Martin were relentless in their making, and relentless in their critiques of the other’s work. It was not uncommon for the artists to collaborate on paintings in order to help the other push through a painterly blockage.

Forty years later, their paths are certainly individual, with each having separate careers, and developing their own distinct and notable painting styles: Bradford, lush atmospheric scenes, often depicting swimmers in acrylic paint; Martin, glitter, collage, and photographs incorporated into his psychedelic, richly layered paintings that sometimes take years to complete. Yet there is still much to be explored in their approach to making art: one finds a shared impulse toward the canvas; a similar drive to create atmosphere with paint; relishing in light and the cosmos. Their friendship has never wavered; nor has their mutual dedication to pushing the medium of painting forward.