Katherine Bradford "Flight Over Water Town"
Tomio Koyama Gallery Roppongi
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Katherine Bradford
Tomio Koyama Gallery is pleased to present “Flight Over Water Town”, a solo exhibition by American artist Katherine Bradford.
Katherine Bradford has garnered international recognition for her distinctive approach to painting. Her work has been showcased in major solo exhibitions worldwide, including the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, United States (2022) and Halle für Kunst, Graz, Austria (2024). This is the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, following her 2022 exhibition “Night Swimmers.”
In this new body of work, Bradford presents fifteen paintings that exemplify her striking yet elusive compositions, which has earned her widespread acclaim. Figures emerge mid-motion – swimming, dancing, walking, flying or resting – set against luminous fields of color where sea, sky, and land meet in vivid, dreamlike horizons. These scenes, while reminiscent of fleeting moments from daily life or cinematic fragments, resist clear narrative or interpretation. The figures, with their abstracted anatomies and faces, elude precise identification, yet their ambiguous gestures invite viewers into an intimate space of curiosity and recognition.
The exhibition title, “Flight Over Water Town” – shared with one of the featured works – captures the essence of recurring motifs in Bradford’s practice: soaring figures and bodies of water. Her airborne figures, evolving from the artist’s celebrated series depicting superhero(ines), infuse the paintings with a sense of buoyancy and a dynamic tension. These figures hover between weightlessness and gravity, freedom and restraint, all while maintaining an undercurrent of whimsy and playfulness. Bradford’s bodies of water – swimming pools, rivers, and the sea – are painted with a unique transparency, achieved through her skillful use of acrylic paint, the artist’s medium of choice. This approach gives her paintings a fluidity that mirrors the transience and ambiguity of her subjects.
This intricate interplay between representation and medium is a defining element of Bradford’s practice, extending beyond her depictions of water to her entire approach to painting. Reflecting on her process, she notes: “I don’t paint from observation. My human beings are closely related to the paint they’re made of. And they’re invented. (Canada “Studio”)”
This perspective can be linked to Bradford’s roots in abstract, gestural painting, and underscores her work, where painted figures and environments are conceived as inseparable from the materiality of paint itself. Through this methodology, Bradford reimagines the boundaries of figuration, creating works that are as much about the act of painting as they are about the worlds they depict.
Bradford’s work also features houses in the Georgian style of 18th-century New England—marked by stout chimneys and neatly aligned windows—that carry a ghostly, floating quality. These spectral homes resonate with Louise Bourgeois’ Femme Maison series, where nude female figures merge with house-like architecture, challenging ideas of femininity and domesticity. Similarly, Bradford uses these images to explore the dynamic between individuality and societal constraints, infusing her imagery with a blend of humor and pathos as her figures navigate boundaries in enigmatic ways.
Katherine Bradford has garnered international recognition for her distinctive approach to painting. Her work has been showcased in major solo exhibitions worldwide, including the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, United States (2022) and Halle für Kunst, Graz, Austria (2024). This is the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, following her 2022 exhibition “Night Swimmers.”
In this new body of work, Bradford presents fifteen paintings that exemplify her striking yet elusive compositions, which has earned her widespread acclaim. Figures emerge mid-motion – swimming, dancing, walking, flying or resting – set against luminous fields of color where sea, sky, and land meet in vivid, dreamlike horizons. These scenes, while reminiscent of fleeting moments from daily life or cinematic fragments, resist clear narrative or interpretation. The figures, with their abstracted anatomies and faces, elude precise identification, yet their ambiguous gestures invite viewers into an intimate space of curiosity and recognition.
The exhibition title, “Flight Over Water Town” – shared with one of the featured works – captures the essence of recurring motifs in Bradford’s practice: soaring figures and bodies of water. Her airborne figures, evolving from the artist’s celebrated series depicting superhero(ines), infuse the paintings with a sense of buoyancy and a dynamic tension. These figures hover between weightlessness and gravity, freedom and restraint, all while maintaining an undercurrent of whimsy and playfulness. Bradford’s bodies of water – swimming pools, rivers, and the sea – are painted with a unique transparency, achieved through her skillful use of acrylic paint, the artist’s medium of choice. This approach gives her paintings a fluidity that mirrors the transience and ambiguity of her subjects.
This intricate interplay between representation and medium is a defining element of Bradford’s practice, extending beyond her depictions of water to her entire approach to painting. Reflecting on her process, she notes: “I don’t paint from observation. My human beings are closely related to the paint they’re made of. And they’re invented. (Canada “Studio”)”
This perspective can be linked to Bradford’s roots in abstract, gestural painting, and underscores her work, where painted figures and environments are conceived as inseparable from the materiality of paint itself. Through this methodology, Bradford reimagines the boundaries of figuration, creating works that are as much about the act of painting as they are about the worlds they depict.
Bradford’s work also features houses in the Georgian style of 18th-century New England—marked by stout chimneys and neatly aligned windows—that carry a ghostly, floating quality. These spectral homes resonate with Louise Bourgeois’ Femme Maison series, where nude female figures merge with house-like architecture, challenging ideas of femininity and domesticity. Similarly, Bradford uses these images to explore the dynamic between individuality and societal constraints, infusing her imagery with a blend of humor and pathos as her figures navigate boundaries in enigmatic ways.
Schedule | Dec 27 (Fri) 2024-Feb 1 (Sat) 2025 Opening Hours Information
Opening Reception Dec 27 (Fri) 2024 17:00 - 19:00 | ||||
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://tomiokoyamagallery.com/en/exhibitions/bradford2024/ | ||||
| Venue | Tomio Koyama Gallery Roppongi http://www.tomiokoyamagallery.com/ | ||||
| Location | 2F Complex665, 6-5-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032 | ||||
| Access | 2 minute walk from exit 1b at Roppongi Station on the Hbiya or Toei Oedo line, 8 minute walk from exit 7 at Azabu-juban Station on the Nanboku or Toei Oedo line, 11 minute walk from exit 5 at Nogizaka Station on the Chiyoda line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-6434-7225 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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