JOHN BRADFORD By Land and By Sea at Anna Zorina Gallery in New York

First, as a painter, my job is to paint the most spectacular, engaging, relevant, even overwhelming works as possible. And using iconic stories from America’s          Ur-narrative could help to re-arrange the interaction between artist and viewer away from being exclusively subjective. I wanted the subject matter to serve as the boundary lines of a game played out on an open field. With the way I had developed my style and act of painting, especially the sharp edges between reduction, abundance, action and abstraction that I had achieved over my career, I could invite the widest possible participation by many diverse viewers to feel free to participate in the game, completing my paintings for themselves.

Thinking about my work in this stark moment, it’s clear that art is almost exclusively about the power of expression and, above all, beauty. I hope all my work powerfully expresses my sentiments in beautiful forms that can give pleasure to people.