The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to present a new installation on view in FWM's storefront windows at 1222 Arch Street: Storefront by artist-in-residence Mark Bradford in collaboration with Juan Carlos Avendaño and FWM. The installation consists of photographic images printed on static cling film-laminate stock and adhered to the finished windows of 1222 Arch Street. These images create the illusion of an interior space under construction with unfinished wooden beams and a roofless structure open to the sky. Storefront is the fourth in a new exhibition series featuring site-specific works by contemporary artists created in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum at 1222 Arch Street. The exhibition is on view through 31 August 2007.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mark Bradford, artist and professional hairstylist, is best known for his large scale paintings/collages covered in singed perm papers collected from his family's beauty salon and scraps of posters from local billboards. These collages have often been compared to the view of the Los Angeles city grid from above. The urban landscape, especially his own neighborhood, South Central L.A., is Bradford's primary source of artistic material, as well as his subject and inspiration. Juan Carlos Avendaño is a photographer whose work also explores the urban landscape of L.A. He is best known for his portraits of Los Angeles residents in their urban environment.

Bradford and Avendaño were inspired by a new city, Philadelphia, to create Storefront, which is the third collaboration between the two artists. The work is a comment on the urban experience as well as a part of the city at a very basic level: street level. Both artists are interested in exploring the factors that shape the urban landscape including the "informal economy" (the economy that consists of the unregulated transactions that are common among those who work in the service industry, including hairstylists). They see the urban landscape as a place full of messages, some of which are meant to be read by the general public and others that are coded and intended for a specific audience. Storefront is intended, in the artists' own words, "to create a faux reality... which bleeds into the reality of urban space" allowing the viewer to reflect on "the increasingly rapid ways in which public space is constantly being designed, defined, erased, and built again."

About Mark Bradford
Born in 1961 in Los Angeles, Mark Bradford continues to live and work in L.A. Bradford received both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. He typically creates paintings that recall a modernist style but are grounded in the materials of his local urban environment, South-Central L.A. Bradford has recently had solo exhibitions at World Class Boxing, Miami FL (2006); LAXART, Los Angeles, CA (2006); Brent Sikkema Gallery New York, NY (2005); REDCAT (2004); and Pomona College of Art (2002). He has received numerous awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2003) and the Bucksbaum Award (2006). Bradford has a solo exhibition opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art in September 2007 (part of the Bucksbaum Award).

About Juan Carlos Avendaño
Juan Carlos Avendaño was born and raised in Medellin, Colombia, and immigrated to the United States in 1986. He moved to Los Angeles in 1991 to pursue a career in graphic arts and design and continues to live and work in the city. After an introductory study of Graphic Design and Photography at Santa Monica College, Avendaño transferred to Los Angeles City College, where he completed its Cinema Production Program. He is interested in his subjects' relation to their environment and often takes portraits of Los Angeles residents in the urban landscape. Avendaño has been in several group exhibitions including Art/Preservation Echo Park, Metro Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2006) and Argentine Artisans Group Show, Eye of the Eagle Gallery, Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA (2004). Avendaño and Bradford have collaborated on two other projects: China Silk for a catalog produced by Sikemma Jenkins Gallery, NY and Maleteros for In-Site 05, a biennial in Tijuana, Mexico.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is the only contemporary art museum in the United States devoted to creating new work in fabric and other materials in collaboration with emerging and established artists from around the world. Founded in 1977, The Fabric Workshop and Museum has developed from an ambitious experiment to a renowned institution with a widely recognized residency program, an extensive collection of work by resident artists, in-house and touring exhibitions, and comprehensive educational programming that includes lectures, tours, in-school presentations, and student apprenticeships.

All FWM exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public.
Hours: Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat., 12 noon to 4 p.m.

The programs of The Fabric Workshop and Museum are supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; National Endowment for the Arts; Miller-Plummer Foundation; LLWW Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services; Nimoy Foundation; The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro; Independence Foundation; PNC Foundation; The Philadelphia Cultural Fund; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Claneil Foundation; Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation; Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation; The Henry Luce Foundation matching gifts program; The Barra Foundation; LEF Foundation; Louis N. Cassett Foundation; Quaker Chemical Foundation; and the Board of Directors and members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

For more information, please contact Alex Sadvari, Communications Coordinator, at 215-568-1111 ext. 15, alex@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org. For general information, call 215-568-1111.

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