Slater Bradley (American, b.1975) is a video and installation artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BA from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1998, and had his first solo show in 1999 at Team Gallery in New York. Bradley manifests his ideas regarding identity, youth, death, and abandonment using pop culture and music icons.
He regularly uses his doppelganger, an actor named Benjamin Brock, in his works. In Don’t Let Me Disappear, Bradley creates a film in which Brock is seen wandering alone around New York City. The work references the protagonist from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye; he analyzes the world around him from the perspective of a disassociated teenager. In Doppelganger Trilogy (2001–2004), Bradley uses the imagery of Ian Curtis from the band Joy Division, Kurt Cobain from the band Nirvana, and Michael Jackson. Each segment in the series has a level of film degradation, which shows the fading nature of the now deceased celebrities. The seemingly appropriated performances are actually all performed by Brock acting as the three musicians. The actor’s physical similarity to Bradley also reflects the dynamics of idolization and seeing one’s own identity in celebrities. An edition of the Doppelganger Trilogy can be found in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum.
Bradley has had solo exhibits at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Aspen Art Museum, the Frans Hals Museum, The Berkely Art Museum, and The Contemporary Arts Museum in St. Louis, MO. He is represented by Max Wigram Gallery in London, Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, and Galeria Helga de Alvear in Madrid.
