Mark Bradford, Purple, 2024, Mixed Media on Canvas, 244.5 x 168.6 x 5 cm / 96.25 x 66.4 x 2 in © Mark Bradford. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong presents ‘Exotica,’ a major solo exhibition by Mark Bradford that navigates the concept of ‘otherness’ through a formally innovative body of work.

Consisting of around 20 new paintings, the exhibition extends Bradford’s study of figuration through the use of a signature staining technique, which uses caulk to create shadow-like imprints on the canvas. These forms inject the artist’s layered compositions with a trace of fantasy and strangeness.

The exhibition is anchored by a group of paintings centered on the agave plant, a monocarpic variety that blooms only once at the end of its lifecycle. Drawing inspiration from a 1970s’ encyclopedic text that catalogued ‘exotic’ plants from a western perspective, this new body of work considers how we imagine, internalize, and project a sense of ‘otherness’ onto which we may be able to name, but have not understood.

The exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong coincides with Bradford’s first solo museum presentation in Germany at the Hamburger Bahnhof–Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin (6 September 2024 - 10 March 2025).

Learning

In partnership with the Bridge+, a local social enterprise in Hong Kong, Hauser & Wirth and Mark Bradford have devised a learning program to accompany the exhibition that will engage with a group of young people, aged 16 – 18, from the Sham Shui Po neighborhood. Participants will explore Bradford’s ‘Merchant Poster’ body of work in a series of workshops designed to introduce young creators to the processes of screen printing and photo emulsion, and to connect with the LA neighborhoods where Bradford sources the materials that have inspired these artworks. Mark Bradford will collaborate with the student participants to realize a mural in the Bridge+ space depicting a map of Hong Kong. The students will install the ‘Merchant Posters’ they create during the workshop in the Bridge+ space, adjacent to the mural.