Bradley Harms - "Countdown to Infinity"

In this new series “Countdown to Infinity”, Bradley Harms deviates from the formal qualities and procedural rigour embedded in other parts of his painting practice to allow for impulse and improvisation to take over - to a place where freedom is paramount and both light and colour become subject matter.

His works on paper loosely map out how one can look at abstraction without fetishizing the paint itself or the process: by being more analytical, through transparencies and interactions, where color becomes the player and subject, and not just a descriptor or decoration. The paper is enriched by the addition of colour as it seems to absorb it rather than act as a support; it is a creation of supercharged colour.

Through this new series, Harms debates “the problem and the beauty” of abstraction that arises from contemporary abstraction trends. In response to this, his paintings strive to become the “other” to what has become quite frankly, a safe and self reflexive environment. Harms states, “when so much abstraction has been problematized through populism and self impersonation, I feel it an opportune time that painting becomes brave and dangerous once again.”

For the past number of years, Bradley Harms has been on the front lines of the new wave of Canadian abstraction, building upon traditions within the medium, while creating work that both reflects and critiques contemporary social and technological developments. Born in 1970, Winnipeg, Bradley Harms received his BFA from the University of Calgary in 1996 and his Masters of Fine Arts from the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Harms has exhibited extensively throughout Canada, as well as on the international stage.