27 Days to 30 Americans 

(born 1961)

While growing up in Los Angeles, Mark Bradford used to make signs for his mother’s hair salon. In fact, at one time, he worked as a hairdresser in that salon. As he explained in an episode of PBS’s Art21, that upbringing instilled a joy and understanding with working with his hands and the art of making. “My art practice goes back to my childhood, but it’s not an art background. I’ve always been a creator. My mother was a creator; my grandmother was a creator,” Bradford explained. His initial works made use of hair salon products such as hair dyes, foil, and hair perm-wave papers, but eventually he began incorporating found objects such as street flyers, posters, newspapers, and billboard ads for evocative and textured large-scale works.

Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans.

Learn more about Bradford at http://www.art21.org/artists/mark-bradford.

photo: Milwaukee Art Museum, http://mam.org/

28 Days to 30 Americans 

(1960-1988)

Born in Brooklyn, Jean-Michel Basquiat began his career in art in the late 1970s as a teenage graffiti artist. Though his roots were in graffiti, Basquiat became a well-known Neo-Expressionist in the mid-1980s, famous for his creative use of everything from windowsills to football helmets. He received national recognition for his unique, aggressive, and vibrant style. In 1985 he appeared on the cover of the New York Times and was featured in the article “New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist.” Along with his great original pieces, Basquiat did a number of collaborations with Andy Warhol in the mid-1980s.

Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans.

Learn more about Basquiat at http://www.basquiat.com/.

photo: http://www.artfinding.com/ 

(born 1963)

The visual and narrative language of coloring books fuels much of the fantastical sensibilities of John Bankston’s oil, acrylic, ceramic, watercolor, and sculpture works. Curator Daniell Cornell, who organized Bankston’s 2006 exhibition Locating Desire at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, expressed how Bankston juggles the art of painting and drawing, representation and abstraction, to transport viewers in a world of childlike reveries. The adventure voyages, science fiction, and fairy tales he relates in his work simultaneously touch upon themes of race, gender roles, masculinity, and sexuality.

Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans.

Video

photo: Milwaukee Art Museum, http://mam.org/

30 Days to 30 Americans

(born 1982)

In the November 2008 issue of W Magazine, a twenty-six-year-old Nina Chanel Abney explained to Haven Thompson how celebrity scandals inspire some of her vibrant, often brazen paintings that at once suggest Francis Bacon, David Hockney, and contemporary street murals. “I’m fascinated by how celebrity news has become not more interesting, but more important than politics. I like to infuse that with race issues,” Abney said, referring to her 2007 solo debut show, Dirty Wash, at New York’s Kravets/Wehby Gallery.

Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans.

To view Abney’s work visit http://www.ninachanel.com/.

photo: Milwaukee Art Museum, http://mam.org/