Brad Downey

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, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Documentary Filmmaking.[1]

Brad Downey initially became known for transforming public signage into artworks, which he, at first anonymously, installed in public space disguised as a construction worker.[2] His earliest motifs were sculptures of anthropomorphized street furniture dissociating from their intended function.[3] These early works were often made in collaboration with Leon Reid IV. The ephemeral nature of this early series can still be found in many of his works today. Brad Downey’s work as a whole defies exact categorization. However, it is often associated with Conceptual art, Graffiti art, Actionism, Land art, Arte Povera, Appropriation, Video art, and others. Using humor, sensitivity, and precise interventions, he investigates the underlying structure of our cities, our landscapes, our sacred sites, as well as the forgotten peripheries and contested borders. In the process he weaves entirely new narratives with their chaotic patterns, often elaborating individual ideas and concepts throughout several years, which causes his work to grow radially rather than linearly.

With collaborators Quenell Jones and Tim Hansberry, Downey directed Public Discourse (2003), a 38-minute documentary about graffiti and street art,[4] which screened at numerous locations including the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Copenhagen International Documentary Festival and Transmediale in Berlin. The film shows work by artists such as Swoon, Shepard Fairey, Revs, Nato, Desa, Ellen Harvey, JJ Veronis, and Johnny Swing from the Rivington School, and features original music by Japanther. Public Discourse was distributed by Video Data Bank.[5]

In 2007 Downey was awarded SEEDA Arts Plus award for a commission with the Tour de France.[6]

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 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.[7] 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, which was actually designed and created by a local artisanal artist with a chainsaw, was received with mixed reactions, due in part to Downey having done no physical work on it. The statue stands in Rožno near Trump's home town of Sevnica.[8]

The sculpture of the First Lady is reported to have been set on fire near her hometown in Slovenia, prompting its removal. In relation to the destruction of the piece.[9][10][11][12]

He has exhibited in venues such as the Museum Tinguely[13] Tate Modern,[14] the ICA in London,[15] and Mass MOCA in the USA,[16] Peacock Visual Arts, in Scotland,[17] Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche in Osnabrück,[18] Kunstcentret Silkeborg Bad, in Denmark.[19]

• 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, "L'Uso Di Libri – The Use of Books", Possible Books (2016) ISBN 9783944591766
• Downey, Brad, "Slapstick Formalism, Process, Project, Object", Possible Books and Dokument Press (2018) ISBN 9789188369178
• Downey, Brad, "Slapstick Formalism, Process, Project, Object", Hatje Cantz (2020) ISBN 9783775747738

• reinkingPROJEKTE
• Brad Downey in the Video Data Bank
• Sculpture (Tour de France) on BBC
• Videos of Brad Downey: “The Studio” (2011), "House of Cards II" (2007), "Mieze" (2007)