Visiting Artists Program (VAP) Resource Guides

The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.

Mark Bradford and Julie Mehretu in Conversation: Monday, November 8, 6:30–7:45 p.m. CT
Click here to join via Zoom, Passcode: SAICVAP
This event will be live captioned by CART.

Join us live for a virtual conversation between artists Mark Bradford and Julie Mehretu followed by an audience Q&A.

Bradford and Mehretu’s conversation will be moderated by Romi Crawford, PhD, professor in the Visual and Critical Studies and Liberal Arts departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her research focuses on formations of racial and gendered identity in relation to American visual arts, film, and popular culture. She is co-author of The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago (Northwestern University Press, 2017). 

This program is presented in partnership with the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, in conjunction with the multipartner, multivenue exhibition Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40.

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Mark Bradford (b. 1961 in Los Angeles) is a Los Angeles–based contemporary artist best known for his large-scale abstract paintings created out of paper. Bradford builds up layers of papers and other materials that he has collected from everyday life, creating thick surfaces that he then lacerates, erodes, and excavates using “tools of civilization” to reveal intersections between the layers of signifying materials. Referred to frequently as “social abstraction,” Bradford’s work is rooted in his understanding that all materials and techniques are embedded with meaning that precedes their artistic utility. His signature style developed out of his early experimentation with end papers, the small, translucent tissue papers used in hairdressing. He has since experimented with other types of paper, including maps, billboards, movie posters, comic books, and “merchant posters” that advertise predatory services in economically distressed neighborhoods. Bradford’s work explores social and political structures that objectify marginalized communities and the bodies of vulnerable populations. Just as essential to Bradford’s work is a social engagement practice through which he reframes objectifying societal structures by bringing contemporary art and ideas into communities with limited access to museums and cultural institutions.

Bradford has exhibited to acclaim internationally. Recent solo exhibitions of his work include End Papers (2020), a historic survey exhibition of his early paintings at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Cerberus, Hauser & Wirth, London (2019); and Los Angeles, Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai (2019). In 2017, Bradford represented the United States at the 57th Venice Biennale with his solo exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day. Complementing the presentation at the US Pavilion, and in keeping with his practice to engage marginalized communities, Bradford launched Process Collettivo, a six-year partnership with the Rio Terà dei Pensieri social cooperative that provides skills training and employment opportunities to incarcerated men and women in and around Venice. Following the biennale, Tomorrow is Another Day traveled to the Baltimore Museum of Art, where Bradford collaborated with Greenmount West Community Center, a community art space offering educational resources to families in Baltimore. Bradford has received numerous awards and honors, including his appointment to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019, the US Department of State Medal of Arts award in 2014, his appointment as a National Academician in 2013, and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009.

Portrait credit: Mark Bradford, 2021. Photo: Brandon Hicks. © Mark Bradford. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Julie Mehretu (b. 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a New York–based artist who explores the palimpsests of history, from geological time to a modern day phenomenology of the social. Her work engages us in a dynamic visual articulation of contemporary experience, a depiction of social behavior, and the psychogeography of space. Mehretu’s work is informed by a multitude of sources including politics, literature, and music. Most recently her paintings have incorporated photographic images from broadcast media that depict conflict, injustice, and social unrest. These graphic images act as intellectual and compositional points of departure; ultimately occluded on the canvas, they remain as a phantom presence in the highly abstracted gestural completed works. Mehretu’s practice in painting, drawing, and printmaking equally asserts the role of art to provoke thought and reflection and express the contemporary condition of the individual and society.

Mehretu’s work has been exhibited extensively in museums and biennials including the Carnegie International (2004–05); Sydney Biennial (2006); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012); Sharjah Biennial (2015); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2017); Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (2019); and the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). In November 2019, a career survey of Mehretu’s work opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It has since traveled to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, where it is currently on view through August 8. It will then travel to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis this fall (October 16, 2021–March 6, 2022). Mehretu has received many prestigious awards including an appointment to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021, the US Department of State Medal of Arts award in 2015, and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005.

Portrait credit: Julie Mehretu. Courtesy of the artist.

Mark Bradford Gallery Representation

Hauser & Wirth

Julie Mehretu Gallery Representation

Marian Goodman Gallery
White Cube Gallery

Mark Bradford’s epic show will put Hauser & Wirth Menorca on the map
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp | Wallpaper | June 19, 2021

Mark Bradford, Carrie Mae Weems, and 10 Others Will Make Art Reflecting on the Legacy of the Great Migration for an Ambitious 2022 Show
artnet news | May 20, 2021

Blood On The Canvas: Mark Bradford Quarantined
Tom Teicholz | Forbes | September 27, 2020

Mark Bradford on Painting with Paper
Francesca Aton | artnet news | September 11, 2020

Mark Bradford Reveals New Paintings Quarantined in a Grain Tower*
Jonathan Griffin | The New York Times | September 8, 2020
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

Interview: Mark Bradford: ‘Everybody should have a little protection, a little cover, a little bit of a net and society should give it to us'
Anita Hill | Artspace | August 12, 2020

How Mark Bradford and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Are Reinventing Outdoor Art
Marley Marius | Vogue | June 20, 2020

Outside the Paint*
Geoff Edgers | The Washington Post | October 10, 2019
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

The Artist as Urban Geographer: Mark Bradford and Julie Mehretu*
K. J. Brown | American Art, vol. 24 (3) | p.100-113 | Fall 2010
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

Toward Common Cause
Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 is organized by the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art in collaboration with exhibition, programmatic, and research partners across Chicago. 

Art + Practice
Art + Practice is a nonprofit organization conceived and founded by artist Mark Bradford, activist Allan DiCastro, and philanthropist and art collector Eileen Harris Norton.

End Papers (2020–21)
This exhibition focuses on the key material and fundamental motif Bradford employed early in his career and has returned to periodically over the past two decades: end papers.

Modern Billings V (2020)
To accompany Mark Bradford: End Papers, the artist's historic exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Bradford has selected three images for Modern Billings V from the archives of his long-time friend, Cleo Hill-Jackson. 

Ursula: Issue 4
For the cover story of Ursula: Issue 4, Agnes Gund and Mark Bradford discuss social justice.

Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America
An intergenerational exhibition of works at the New Museum from thirty-seven artists, conceived by curator Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019).

Art21 – Mark Bradford
Art21’s resources about the work of Mark Bradford, including videos, texts, and exhibition images.

Art for Justice Fund 
Mark Bradford donated artwork to the Art for Justice Fund, which makes direct grants to artists and advocates focused on safely reducing the prison population, promoting justice reinvestment and creating art that changes the narrative around mass incarceration.

MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Class of 2009

Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.  

SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977–98).

How Julie Mehretu Creates Her Deeply Layered Abstractions Referencing Today’s Most Pressing Issues
Maximilíano Durón | ARTnews | June 1, 2021

Julie Mehretu with Phong H. Bui
Phong H. Bui | The Brooklyn Rail | June 2021

The Irreducible Julie Mehretu
Cassidy George | The Cut | March 26, 2021

Julie Mehretu’s Long Journey Home*
Jason Farago | The New York Times | March 25, 2021
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

Inside Julie Mehretu’s Richly Layered World
Jori Finkel | W Magazine | March 7, 2021

An Interview with Julie Mehretu: The Mark of an Artist
Mark Benjamin | Rain Magazine | September 3, 2020

In 'Julie Mehretu' at LACMA, the world explodes on canvas. Grab a seat for the show*
Christopher Knight | Los Angeles Times | December 19, 2019
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

Julia Bryan-Wilson on Julie Mehretu*
Julia Bryan-Wilson | Artforum | February 2020
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

The Artist as Urban Geographer: Mark Bradford and Julie Mehretu*
K. J. Brown | American Art, vol. 24 (3) | p.100-113 | Fall 2010
*This is a library resource that requires ARTIC login

A brush with... Julie Mehretu
A Brush With... [Podcast] | March 24, 2021 | Please note this podcast does not provide transcripts

The Quarantine Tapes 027: Julie Mehretu
The Quarantine Tapes [Podcast] | April 28, 2020 | Please note this podcast does not provide transcripts

Toward Common Cause
Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 is organized by the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art in collaboration with exhibition, programmatic, and research partners across Chicago. 

Julie Mehretu’s Mid-Career Survey
Julie Mehretu is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art (currently on view through August 8), New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition traveled to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta and will then travel to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis this fall (October 16, 2021–March 6, 2022).

Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America 
An intergenerational exhibition of works at the New Museum from thirty-seven artists, conceived by curator Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019).

Denniston Hill Residency 
Julie Mehretu is a founding member of the Denniston Hill Residency.

Art21 – Julie Mehretu
Art21’s resources about the work of Julie Mehretu, including videos, texts, and exhibition images.

Art for Justice Fund 
Julie Mehretu donated artwork to the Art for Justice Fund, which makes direct grants to artists and advocates focused on safely reducing the prison population, promoting justice reinvestment and creating art that changes the narrative around mass incarceration.

MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Class of 2005

Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.

SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977-98).