Patti Brady

Patti Brady has remained influenced by feminist ideas throughout her career.  She graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with a BFA in the 70s.  Her work ranged from hand painted quilts to collage and prints, and large scale charcoal work dealing with women’s body issues. While working with Golden Artist Colors, an innovative artists acrylic paint company as the Director of Education Programs, she has maintained a rigorous studio practice. Working with Golden Artist she has traveled to Japan, Brussels, South America, France, Canada, Germany and the UK, presenting lectures.  Over 200 professional artists have been mentored in the technical applications of acrylic. She was awarded the South Carolina Arts Fellowship in 2006.  Her work is in the collections of the Greenville County Museum, the State Museum, and Ashely Tower in Charleston. She is a published author, Rethinking Acrylics, and has articles published in the technical journal, Just Paint. Her most recent works, accomplished while in residency at Vermont Studio Center, were chosen for the City Gallery, Charleston, SC, and ArtFields, Lake City, SC.  She was curated into Create Magazine, by the Southern Gallery in Charleston SC, and Studio Visits, curated by  Winter Publication, Juror: George Kinghorn Exec Dir. And Curator, University of Maine Museum of Art. In 2012 she was included “100 Southern Artists”, E.Ashley Rooney, published by Schiffer.

Beauty and Barbs begins with instinct and results in vibrant, playful excess. Brady looks to the Pattern and Decoration Movement that developed in the 1970s to contextualize her work, while also drawing from fashion and her longtime interest in sewing to manipulate hard surfaces to resemble lingerie-like doilies.  Brady slips a barb (sometimes literally) into her otherwise ornate, decorative layers of patterns atop Plexiglas and bits of mirror. Slits of the transparent Plexi support or reflective planes are exposed to varying degrees, inviting the environment to permeate the pieces.

This new work expresses desire and craving, humor, a taste for art making that is not easily satiated and the pleasure of indulging in the splendor of color, texture and pattern. 

Lisa Crossman, Curator, Fitchburg Museum, Fitchburg MA