14th November – 20th December 2025
PV Thursday 13th November 6pm
Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon whereby wind driven, nutrient rich water from the depths rises to the surface, forming areas where life thrives.
In the first room four large works are situated back to back and suspended in the centre of the space, spanning floor to ceiling. Sweeping gestural marks cover the diaphanous material, the paint is translucent and light seeps in from either side. The large panels divide the space and a swing fashioned from used stretcher bars hangs in between the works. Seated, the viewer can pause, enveloped between gestures and colour suspended in space.
Bradleys paintings employ transparent voile stretched over reclaimed wood, as a support for gestural mark marking. Large brushes need to be fabricated specifically to make these broad strokes, the water and paint are captured by the thin material. Layering the fabric also creates a shifting moire effect that moves with the viewer, reflecting the artists view of her surfaces as living, breathing spaces. Bradley’s marks are so slight, they can be read as a record of a gesture more than an application of a substance.
Brushstrokes appear also on the gallery floor in pigmented sand, ephemeral arrangements of colour made with slow and deliberate movements. These works are a precise distillation of the artist’s position, a series of uplifting, positive moments, joyful and inherently transitory. For Bradley, the cumulative moments in Upwelling coalesce as a series of interlinked, organic gestures, into a broad metaphor for renewal and regeneration.
Betsy Bradley (b. 1992, Bath, UK) lives and works in Warwickshire, UK.
Recent solo exhibitions include: Bayou at Sacred Thing in Stroud (2024) Betsy Bradley at Vardaxoglou, London (2022) and Chasing Rainbows at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2021). She gained her MA Fine Art from Birmingham School of Art in 2018.
Betsy Bradley, The end of collection is dispersion, 2025
Sand
Betsy Bradley, Upwelling, 2025
Acrylic, rainwater, ink and spray paint on voile
180 x 142 cm
Betsy Bradley, Surrender to your transience, 2025
Acrylic and spray paint on voile in four parts, repurposed
stretcher bars, jute rope
Dimensions variable
Betsy Bradley, In the sky we bloom, 2024
Acrylic and sea water on voile
120 x 93.5 cm
Betsy Bradley, Out of the ashes, 2025
Acrylic on voile
45 x 31.5 cm
Betsy Bradley, Fruits of metamorphosis, 2025
Acrylic on voile, gemstones
Betsy Bradley, Volcanic Psyche, 2025
Acrylic and spray paint on voile
60 x 83 cm
Betsy Bradley, Nebula, 2025
Acrylic on voile
200 x 180 cm
