Donald Bradford: Prayer Paintings

Andrea Schwartz Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Donald Bradford. The exhibition will be on view June 13 - July 27, 2018, with an opening reception Wednesday, June 13 from 5:30 - 7:30.

Donald Bradford’s new body of work was inspired by photographs taken by his friends in Italy of a large glass box filled with prayers. The idea of praying has always interested Bradford, and he began to wonder how he could portray praying in his artwork. He created three paintings from that one photograph and named them, “Prayers from Italy”.  This inspiration evolved into a daily practice of writing, and subsequently painting, his own prayers.

 This process became more specific when his beloved cousin Nancy became terminally ill with cancer. Still captivated by the concept of meditation and prayer, Donald decided to create a series of paintings dedicated to his cousin, titled “Prayers for Nancy”. Besides Nancy, Donald also drafted and painted prayers for Hillary Clinton, Colin Kaepernick, and anyone else in need of prayer. This body of work became the series, “Prayer Paintings”