Joe Bradley co-curates Paysage at Le Consortium
1 July 2023—28 January 2024
Le Consortium, Dijon, France
Beginning on July 1, 2023, a brand-new project called The Wing will occupy the first floor of the Consortium Museum. This space is usually reserved for temporary exhibitions of the collection. The Consortium Museum's directors have given this wing of the structure to two artists, Tobias Pils (b. 1971, Austria) and Joe Bradley (b. 1975, USA), who have strong ties to the art center and have previously exhibited there. The Paysage exhibition was the result of these two painters becoming curators. It pulls together pieces from their own collections by artists whose discreet careers have been characterized as "folkart," "outsider," and other vague terms.
Hans Kruckenhauser, an Austrian painter who lived from 1940 until 2017, is the subject of Tobias Pils's current project. While Joe Bradley has given prominence to the prosperous landscapes painted by Alyne Harris (1943, USA) from her rural home in Florida. This initial installation of The Wing is a forerunner to a permanent space managed by these two artists that will soon be put in place at the Consortium Museum, bringing forth ties that have been created between a significant number of artists and the art center for over 45 years.
Nothing else but being a landscape painter is what unites those two artists in this exhibition we both always wanted to see. This show by two fairly unknown artists- one from the United States, one from Europe aligning in our heads at first and now for real. Like a dream.