New York-based painter Joe Bradley often finds his work being compared to the late minimalist Ellsworth Kelly, whose geometric compositions feel neat and tidy. Bradley is his messier acolyte, his visible brush strokes breathing life into otherwise orderly work. Play, however, is paramount: Though Bradley oscillates between geometric abstraction and cartoonish figuration, a sense of levity comes through no matter where on the pendulum he swings.
This lightness is present in his latest show and David Zwirner debut “Vom Abend,” now on view through May 18 at the gallery’s West 19th Street location in New York. Even the title has a certain innocence: Bradley found the words in a German children’s book. “I don't speak German, but I thought ‘Vom Abend’ had a nice ring to it,” he adds.