The School of Art in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is proud to announce that artist Andre Bradley will speak as part of its Visiting Lecture Series at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, in Hillside Auditorium, room 202. 

Bradley is based in Philadelphia and uses curatorial and photo book practices to explore the subject of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the Black community. He utilizes mixed and digital media, photography and installation as forms of ideological resistance that foreground lived experience against the background of art.

Bradley graduated from Image Text Ithaca and the Rhode Island School of Design's photography M.F.A. program. While at Rhode Island School of Design, he received the T.C. Colley Award for photographic excellence. He also completed coursework at the Maryland Institute College of Art's curatorial practice M.F.A program and was named a George Ciscle Scholar in curatorial practice during his studies here. 

Bradley's first photo-book, Dark Archives, I-41, was shortlisted for the Photo-Text Book Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles and the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First Photo Book Award, both in 2016. 

Dark Archives is a provocative exploration of one Black man's memories of childhood. An autobiography in fragments, which interweaves Bradley's writing and photographs with pictures from his family archive. Part story, part lyrical investigation, the publication aims to upset the linguistic and visual constrictions placed on Black males. Bradley powerfully combines image and text in this deeply moving meditation on narrative agency, the family as an archive, being a young Black man and being Andre Bradley.

Bradley was the inaugural fellow of the Arc Baltimore/Curatorial Practice Fellowship in 2019, a junior fellow at Image Text Ithaca in 2015 and an artist-in-residence at the Tilt Institute for the Contemporary Image in 2016. Bradley's work has been collected by public and private art institutions and libraries including the RISD Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem and Scripps College's Ella Strong Denison Library Rare Book Room.

"I'm very excited to have Andre Bradley visit the University of Arkansas," said Aaron Turner, assistant professor of photography and interdisciplinary practice and director of the Center for Art as Lived Experience. "It's been a pleasure to follow his work ever since the release of his book Dark Archives, which the Center for Art as Lived Experience had the pleasure of collecting in spring 2023. His work not only centers on photography, representation and archival practice but expands to other disciplines such as art education and themes of accessibility. During his visit, he'll also be visiting with endowed associate professor of art education Injeong Yoon-Ramirez's Arts Pedagogy and Activism class."

Bradley is currently assistant director of pre-college education at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University.

All are invited to learn more about Bradley Thursday, April 25, at 5:30 p.m. at the Hillside Auditorium, room 202.