After her film Time became a critical sensation last year, Garrett Bradley has gotten representation at a a major gallery. Lisson Gallery, of London, New York, Shanghai, and East Hampton, has added the New Orlean–based artist to its roster, which also includes Marina Abraomvić, John Akomfrah, Carmen Herrera, and other major figures of note. The gallery will now represent Bradley exclusively worldwide.
In a statement, Bradley said, “Lisson has supported artists across time, space, and practice for over five decades and I am incredibly honored to have the opportunity to join this group of artists who I greatly admire, and to collaborate with a gallery committed to cultural growth both now and far beyond.”
Garrett Bradley.
Across Bradley’s films, there is an interest in what does and doesn’t make into archives and the ways in which past moving-image material continue to inform the present.
Bradley’s breakout success came with Time, a tender documentary focused on activist and entrepreneur Fox Rich’s attempts to get her husband out of prison. It won the top honor for U.S. documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and is currently shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. The film figured at #3 on an ARTnews list of the defining artworks of 2020.
Yet Bradley’s work, which also takes the form of film installations, has also been met with acclaim in the art world. America, a short by Bradley drew its inspiration from the first feature-length film with an all-Black cast, was turned into an installation at the Museum of Modern Art last year for a show put on in a collaboration with the Studio Museum in Harlem, and in 2019, she figured in the Whitney Biennial.
Alex Logsdail, executive director of Lisson Gallery, told ARTnews, “She’s speaking to so many issues that are in the current cultural zeitgeist, and she’s able to frame them in a way that humanizes them and makes you readdress them in your own mind. That’s a pretty powerful thing to be able to do.”
