Published 4 SEP 2024

10 SEP until 9 NOV 2024

Cudelice Brazelton IV works in installation, sculpture, painting, and assemblage. In his practice he strongly focuses on the surface and texture of materials. Using found objects and fabrics, he creates multilayered, abstract works stretched onto wooden frames. The works often protrude, extending into the exhibition space, or open like trap doors to offer a glimpse into what’s beneath. Oscillating between painting and assemblage, Brazelton frequently incorporates materials that pretend to be something different. He uses fabric imitating a metal chain, paper pretending to be leather, and inkjet print-outs posing as metal hardware – “cheap” tricks and effects translated into material. Brazelton plays with these imperfect trompe l’oeils, which at times give off the aura of a DIY project, openly revealing their tricks, yet at other times successfully fool even the keenest viewer. In this abstract system of materials and references he creates experimental objects which give a nod to baroqueness.

The Attic Is Full, his first project with Galerie Barbara Wien, comprises mixed media works and video. The exhibition forms a system of symbols and metaphors, exploring questions of class, race, and national identity, as Brazelton’s works unfold new layers of meaning in their relation to each other. The title of the exhibition, The Attic Is Full, opens up a plethora of associations. With assemblage and mixed media at the core of his practice, Brazelton frequently incorporates objects one may expect to find in a cramped attic. Yet the title also conjures the attic as a mysterious, latent space where supernatural beings might dwell and secrets are kept. It further evokes the symbolic role of the attic in literature and film as a repository for memory and trauma.

Cudelice Brazelton IV (b. 1991 in Dallas, USA) lives and works in Frankfurt. He studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Madison, USA. Brazelton has had solo and duo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Lingen (2024), Lodos, Mexico City (2023), Murmurs, Los Angeles (2022), Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin (2021), Galerie Sans titre, Paris (2021) Wschód, Warsaw (2020), and Shoot The Lobster, New York (2019).

Brazelton has participated in group shows including, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff-Stipendium. Die Ausstellung 2023 at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Freiburg Biennale (2023), Don’t Say I Didn’t Say So at Kunstverein Bielefeld, Whereabouts at Hessel Museum of Art, New York, Beneath Tongues at Swiss Institute, New York (2022), The Decameron at New Release Gallery, New York, The struggle for change at Murmurs, Los Angeles (2020), Cater to you at EIGEN + ART Lab, Berlin (2019), In Practice: Another Echo at SculptureCentre, New York, and Ten Toes Down at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (2018).