Sun Records
FROSCH&CO is pleased to present Sun Records, Brad Nelson’s fourth solo exhibition
with the gallery and his inaugural solo presentation at the gallery’s East Broadway
space. The artist lives and works in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Brad Nelson’s recent paintings celebrate the everyday. Painting in his family room rather
than in a space exclusively functioning as an artist studio, his examinations of familiar
objects capture the mundane rhythm of our daily rituals. As in previous series, the sun
plays a significant factor guiding the artist’s process in this new body of work.
It's a brand new try, with a brand new "I"
By a brand new window, by a brand new sky
Watching the brand new birds flying by
Oh lord it's changing
- Michael Nau, lyrics from “The Glass”
Brad Nelson has had this text by singer-songwriter Michael Nau in his head for the past
few years and just recently realized that it accurately encompasses what his work has
been attempting to do over the past years, which is to connect through painting to
something that is fleeting and outside of his control: Seeing the newness or the
unsuspected in predictability. The sun as a light source is the predictable variable and
always present in the work, but how the artist connects to it feels endless. Similar to the
revolution of a record on a turntable or the circularity of a ritual or habit, the Earth
rotates and the little domestic space where he lives and works with his family on Cape
Cod realigns with the sun, streaming in through the windows and doors to illuminate a
new set of possibilities while searching for paintings. Striving to hold on to anything that
is ephemeral and momentarily brilliant through the still-life-painting tradition, the works
in Sun Records are conceptually grounded by song lyrics. The exhibition centers on the
mundane quality of the subject matter, its ability to be easily overlooked, and how
stunning anything can appear while being hit by direct sunlight.
Falmouth, MA based Brad Nelson received a Bachelors degree in photography from the University of
Kentucky, Post Baccalaureate Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and an M.F.A. in
Painting and Drawing from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/ Tufts University.