
THE DANCE
20
THE DANCE
BRADLEY THEODORE
JUNE | 2024
PRESS CLIPPINGS
On June 20th, the show “The Dance” by Bradley Theodore, opens at 18. Born in Turks and Caicos, Bradley Theodore is a contemporary artist who started his career in New York City and has been an internationally inclined artist and collaborator from his very beginnings. Occupying the entire gallery with various artworks, the show proposes a playful interaction between the act of dancing and the multidisciplinary characteristics of his work, expressing himself through different icons, art, and color.
The artist represents major contemporary icons such as skeletons, not to reference death, but as a fundamental part of every human being. Theodore’s portraits juxtapose the legendary and mortal qualities of modern and contemporary icons, and the artist has become a staple in the art and fashion scene in New York City. These major figures are simplified to their trademarks, their most recognizable elements, making them easily recognizable regardless of language or location. The artist’s work plays with what is ‘legacy’ and what is ‘one of us’.
With roots in graphic design and animation, Theodore’s beginnings as an artist came from adorning the streets of New York City with vibrant, chromatic murals of skeletons depicting contemporary pop culture and fashion “royalty.”
Bradley Theodore is known for his colorful depictions of icons. He is a multi-disciplinary artist whose iconoclastic approach to art can be found internationally, from 10-foot murals on the streets of Tokyo, Paris and Milan, to sold-out solo shows in London, Tokyo and NYC. Beyond his many techniques, such as acrylic paint onto canvas, screen printing, sculptures, and more recently, oil paint his work extends to multimedia, transmitting the essence of his art through clothing and footwear design in high-fashion shows, dance on theater stages, 3D art, and music.
Evoking the universality of color, skeletons, and celebrity, Theodore distills figures to skeletal forms, with broad brushstrokes and wide gestural movements, mixing geometric abstraction with figurative elements, his work has a Miami flavor, where he grew up. This is a confrontation that the artist calls “an act of living”, pushing color to express memory, emotion, and lived experiences.
“My work is about looking deeper into individuals, which allows you to look deeper into yourself. As a kid, I grew up wondering what was behind a person’s actions. That always puzzled me. That is an ultimate question for human beings.” Bradley Theodore told GQ in an interview.
Lifestyle, and art, blend as part of the artist’s iconography in his search between the external self, the icon we all know, and the internal self, the mortal being behind the public figure. Together, these factors become universal and multicolor figures in his artworks. Drawing inspiration from different continents, from Latin America to Europe and Japan, and engaging with various sectors of art, the artist doesn’t seek their differences but rather what they all have in common.
The show “The Dance” plays with the universality of color, skeletons, celebrities, and pop icons, with what is multicultural in contemporary society, an era of mass media and global communication.











