David Bradshaw

David Bradshaw studied at University of Hartford. The field of work recorded is art of sculpture. Work by David Bradshaw is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Harry Ransom Center and Whitney Museum of American Art.

• Name — David Bradshaw • Born — 28 September 1944 • Birthplace — New York City, New York, US • Field — Sculpture, Printmaking, Painting, Performance Art • Training — Hartford Art School • Movement — Postminimalism • Patrons — Robert Rauschenberg

Born in New York City, David Bradshaw was raised in Washington, D.C., and Old Greenwich, Connecticut. His father was a modern interior designer, and his mother a classical pianist. He pursued a BA at the Hartford Art School from 1962 to 1965. With less than one year remaining to obtain his degree he left school and traveled throughout Europe spending his time sketching the regional landscapes and its inhabitants. Upon his return to the US, Bradshaw became extremely active in the US Civil Rights Movement. In 1976, he was alleged to have shot and killed Cheeseface, the dog who appeared on National Lampoons famous "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog" cover.

Trained in traditional artistic skills and processes, Bradshaw is known for his use of handguns, explosive devices (typically dynamite) and steel to create large-scale, free standing sculptures; reshaping the metal through the force of controlled explosions. He carves intricate patterns and designs into sheets of steel using a plasma torch.

Over the last 40 years, Bradshaw has shown and collaborated with contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Philip Taaffe, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, Tina Girouard, Laurie Anderson and James Surls, among many others. During the 1960s he participated in various performance art pieces with Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, Lamont Young, and Yvonne Rainer, Bradshaw played an integral part in the development of the exhibition space, 112 Greene Street in NYC. This space became a key exhibition and performance space for emerging artists and helped SoHo to emerge as a center for the arts scene in New York City. He exhibited his work there early in his career alongside the artist, and close friend, Gordon Matta-Clark. In 1969, Bradshaw was one of seven artists commissioned by gallerist and art publisher Rosa Esman to participate in a project entitled 7 Objects/69, a limited-edition artwork of multiples by seven process artists. The seven minimal and conceptual objects in 7 Objects/69 included sculpture by Eva Hesse, Richard Serra, Alan Saret, Keith Sonnier, and Steven Kaltenbach; a record album by Bruce Nauman; and Bradshaw's painting, Tears. In his mid-twenties, Bradshaw was invited to create art at Untitled Press at Rauschenberg's residence and studio on Captiva Island. He spent a number of months here creating new work in the late 1960s. In 1973, this work was subsequently included in an exhibit beside works by Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Brice Marden, and Robert Whitman at the Wadsworth Atheneum. His early works included photography, films, drawing, printmaking and large-scale minimalist paintings.

Bradshaw’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. His work was included in Ports of Entry, a retrospective of art and written works by Burroughs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1996. Over the years he has had various exhibitions at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana, and most recently at Kolok Gallery in North Adams, MA and from December 12, 2009, through January 23, 2010, at the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York City. His work has been critically reviewed in Art in America (Dec. 2005 and 1998), Contact Quarterly, and ArtForum as well as in other periodicals and newspapers throughout the United States. His artwork has been collected both privately and publicly throughout the U.S. and Europe. Notable collections include the estates of artist Robert Rauschenberg and writer/artist William S. Burroughs, the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Polk Museum of Art, the University of S. Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, and the Sheldon Swope Art Museum. Over a dozen of Bradshaw's large-scale plasma torch sculptures are in the private collection of the House of Blues and are on permanent exhibit at their performance venues in Las Vegas, Nevada; Anaheim, California; and Orlando, Florida.

Prints from the Untitled Press, Captiva, Florida Wadsworth Atheneum; 72 pages, 1973. Rauschenberg by Mary Lynn Kotz; 320 pages, 1990. Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts by Robert A. Sobieszek and William S. Burroughs 192 pages, (Paperback - Oct 1996). Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader by Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere, 304 pages, 2003. The Judson Dance Theater: Performative Traces by Ramsay Burt, 204 pages, 2007. The Artists Bluebook, Edited by Lonnie Pierson Dunbier, 2005.