Bradley Hart, born in 1972 in Toronto, Canada, currently resides and works in New York, infusing his artistic endeavors with a unique and innovative approach.
Hart’s artistic canvas is unconventional yet captivating, primarily employing bubble wrap as his creative material. This distinct choice transforms the commonly used packing plastic into a medium for intricate and thought-provoking art.
The genesis of Hart’s transformative artistry arose from encounters with overly protective museum security guards and a leftover roll of bubble wrap from his inaugural solo show in New York. This experience fueled the conceptualization of a complex and elaborate system that defines Hart’s artistic practice, constantly evolving and giving birth to new forms of art.
One of Hart’s prominent series, the Injection paintings, exemplifies his ingenuity. Drawing subjects from personal photographs, ranging from celebrity portraiture to snapshots of daily life, Hart uses proprietary software to assign a color code to each bubble. In a meticulously crafted process, he injects acrylic paint into individual cells of the bubble wrap, resulting in pixelated hyperrealist recreations of the chosen images. Notable works include a portrait of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, where over 16,000 individual bubbles were injected with 89 different hues of paint.
The intricacy of Hart’s art is evident in the time invested, with an average of 150 hours devoted to each Injection work. Impressions, a subsequent series, emerges intentionally during the injection process. Hart deliberately overfills the bubbles, allowing excess paint to drip down the flat side of the bubble wrap. The drips, upon drying, are removed from the plastic, forming the basis for the Impression series. This series, a natural byproduct of the preceding Injection work, stands as an independent body of art, showcasing Hart’s ability to create layered and interconnected narratives within his oeuvre.
Bradley Hart’s work stands as a testament to the boundless possibilities of artistic expression, where everyday materials are transformed into captivating stories and images that challenge conventions and captivate the viewer’s imagination.