Reconsidering The Negative: An Interview With "The Space Between" Co-Curators

Ryan Bradley, Untitled (Pink I-III)

So Ryan, in addition to co-curating the exhibition, your work is among those featured.  How do you blend the techniques of photorealism and subtraction (as in the pieces above)? RB: All three of these [feature] the same model.  I've worked with one model for about six years.  These two [on the left] are actually the exact same photograph that I'm working from.... My work is very much about pushing the abstraction as far as I possibly can to make it more difficult for the person or the viewer to see - to conclude - the face.  But each preceding piece informs the next.  So what is removed on the [far left] one is tangible - or partly tangible - on [the middle] one.... This was a tryptic, it was three pieces.  So the point is that when you look back, you're able to look at all three, and kind of make the full picture in your mind.  Which is different than [other artists' work here], which is about one moment, one element, one idea that you're trying to convey.  I'm trying to convey a kind of migration of patterns through more than one piece.  And it's a succession of pieces.  So I've never done a single piece.  It's always been consecutive pieces that relate to one another and inform one another. I understand that you paint an entire image before using subtraction - carefully cutting away certain elements - to create your finished portrait series.  Is it a difficult process to alter what could be considered finished art? RB: At the very end, I've sat with these pieces for about three months, and they're fully realized - or almost fully [realized].  It's a very long progression, and then in one moment, when I start removing, it changes completely.  And it's a very difficult thing to deal with because I've come to a point where I like this thing that I've been working on, and then in seconds, it's completely altered forever.  And usually there's a large disconnect - I don't like [cutting away] at first.  It really takes awhile for it to grow on me.  But they're all completely pre-planned - I work on the computer first.  I never move to the paper or easel intuitively. Ryan Bradley Untitled (Pink I-III), 2009 Pastel & Gouache on Arches [Photo via]