Brad Downey

Brad Downey (born 1980 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American artist. Downey lives in Berlin.

Biography

Downey earned a fine art master's degree in painting and sculpture from the Slade School of Art, where he studied under Bruce McLean. He grew up in a United States Marine Corps family. Pratt Institute drew him to New York City in 1998.[1]

Career

His first feature-length film, Public Discourse, a documentary about street art,[2] was screened throughout the world, including at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival. The film shows work by street artists such as Swoon, Obey Giant, Revs, Nato, Desa, Ellen Harvey, JJ Veronis, and Johnny Swing from the Rivington School, and features music by Japanther. Public Discourse was distributed by Video Data Bank.

He has exhibited in venues such as the Tate Modern,[3] the ICA in London,[4] and Mass MOCA in the USA,[5] Peacock Visual Arts, in Scotland,[6] Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche in Osnabrück,[7] Kunstcentret Silkeborg Bad, in Denmark.[8]

In 2007 Downey was awarded SEEDA Arts Plus award for a commission with the Tour de France.[9]

In 2008, Downey sprayed green paint on the shopping windows of Berlins historical KaDeWe mall, which the owners reported to the police as an act of vandalism. However, Downey had been contracted by the Lacoste clothing brand (along with 11 other street artists) for an exhibition at KaDeWe celebrating the 75th anniversary of the brand, and he maintained that he was just fulfilling his contract. Die Tageszeitung speculated that the incident might have been a media stunt by Lacoste.[10] After the action Lacoste kicked Brad out of the exhibition and never paid him.

In 2019, Downey orchestrated the creation of the first public sculpture of Melania Trump, the wife of the 45th American president Donald Trump, in her home country, Slovenia. The sculpture, created by a local artisan with a chainsaw, was received with mixed reactions. The statue stands in Rožno near Trump's home town of Sevnica.[11] The sculpture of the First Lady is reported to have been set on fire near her hometown in Slovenia, prompting its removal.[12][13][14]

Bibliography
  • Zipco, Ed. "The Adventures of Darius and Downey: And other True Tales of Street Art, As Told to Ed Zipco", Thames&Hudson (2008) ISBN 0-500-51395-3
  • Downey, Brad, "Spontaneous Sculptures", Gestalten (2011) ISBN 9783899553796
  • Downey, Brad, "Slapstick Formalism", Dokument Press (2018) ISBN 9789188369178
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References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2013-03-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Jaklič, T., "Človek, ki stoji za leseno Melanio—Skulptura je del razstave ameriškega umetnika Brada Downeyja v ljubljanski galeriji Vžigalica", Delo, July 9, 2020.
  3. http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/cinema/past-programs/art-after-dark_904.html
  4. http://www.reinkingprojekte.com/en/labels/brad-downey.html
  5. http://www.reinkingprojekte.com/en/labels/brad-downey.html
  6. http://www.reinkingprojekte.com/en/labels/brad-downey.html
  7. http://www.reinkingprojekte.com/en/labels/brad-downey.html
  8. http://www.reinkingprojekte.com/en/labels/brad-downey.html
  9. http://www.reinkingprojekte.com/en/labels/brad-downey.html
  10. Kadewe - Art-Magazine Archived 2008-06-01 at the Wayback Machine Kadewe - Taz (german)
  11. "'Scarecrow' statue of Melania Trump unveiled in Slovenia to mixed reviews". The Guardian. 5 July 2019.
  12. "U.S. first lady Melania Trump statue set on fire in Slovenia". Reuters. 2020-07-08. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  13. "Melania Trump statue torched in Slovenia". BBC News. 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  14. Guy, J., "Melania Trump statue in Slovenia removed after being set on fire", CNN, July 9, 2020.
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