'Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody' at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

1 December 2022

'Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody' is the first solo museum presentation of the work of the Los Angeles- and New Orleans-based artist and filmmaker.

Bradley works across narrative, documentary, and experimental modes of filmmaking to address themes such as race, class, familial relationships, social justice, southern culture, and the history of film in the United States. Employing a collaborative and research-based approach to filmmaking, Bradley explores the space between fact and fiction, embracing modes of working and of representing history that blur the boundaries between traditional notions of narrative and documentary cinema.

'American Rhapsody' features a selection of recent single- and multi-channel films and videos, including America (2019), in which Bradley constructs a visual archive of early African American cinema and poignantly asks what it might mean to model a history of black visuality and representation that privileges depictions of pleasure over spectacles of pain.

The exhibition runs from 10 September 2022 – 19 February 2023.

Image: Garrett Bradley, AMERICA, 2019 (film still), Multi-channel video installation; 35mm film transferred to HD video (black and white, 5.1 sound), 23 minutes 55 seconds © Garrett Bradley