MARK BRADLEY-SHOUP (American b. 1974- )Painter Mark Bradley-Shoup earned his BFA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Painting and Drawing and his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Studio Art. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, Omaha, Miami, Birmingham, Santa Monica, New Orleans and Vancouver, B.C. In addition to his extensive exhibition record, Bradley-Shoup has been the recipient of two Make Work grants, the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission, an Individual Arts Grant form Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga, and a Pollock-Krasner Grant, as well as nominated for the Dedalus Foundation, Joan Mitchell Award and a George Marshall Fellowship. His work has been published in New American Paintings and Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform from Chronicle Books. Currently, Bradley-Shoup is based in Chattanooga where he lives with his wife and two children and is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. “Territory and territoriality are the defining concepts of political geography in that they bring together the ideas of power and space: territories as spaces that are defended, contested, claimed against the claims of others; in short, through territoriality. Territory and territoriality mutually presuppose one another. There can’t be one without the other. Territoriality is activity: the activity of defending, controlling, excluding, including; territory is the area whose content one seeks to control in these ways.” -Kevin R. Cox “Space has always reduced me to silence.” -Jules Valle ARTIST STATEMENT: My studio practice involves the exploration of both representational and abstract imagery, both of which are embedded in my response to the landscape and how human culture interacts with the environment. My studio exploration consists of intricately crafted paintings of both rural and urban environments based on both appropriated and personal manipulated images, utilizing digital media tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. I employ the extensive use of tape and x-acto knives to create precise areas of thick paint that emphasize the surface texture of the compositions in a way that undermines any elements of photorealist illusion. I am particularly interested in how the concept of the picture plane has continually evolved due to technological influence. The painters of the Renaissance had their “window,” the Impressionists had their “blur,” the Photorealists of the 1970’s had their “lens,” but it seems much of that is currently being replaced by the concept of the monitor or the screen, and we are seeing a concentrated group of contemporary painters employing a video realist or a media influenced effect to their work. To that end, I am deeply invested in utilizing various digital media methods combined with traditional approaches to fully refine my work in order to contribute to the discourse of contemporary painting practice. My work is a response to both the natural and built landscape and how we inhabit, interact and encounter space and form. The intention of my work is to address the theme of expansion and recession/ consumption and growth. I am intrigued by how we inhabit and utilize space. My work responds to the built form, partly for its architectural purpose, but quite often I am drawn to such objects for the dialogue that these forms have with one another and with the space in which they inhabit. At times these conversations can be poetic, but other times these structures carry out very absurd and awkward functions that are often overlooked due to their monotonous role in our culture. I believe in the construction of a painting, laying down a framework for which all subsequent layers will have support to rest upon. The concept of ‘building’ a painted image/ form allows for a more sincere discourse with my interest in the constructed landscape and with my fascination of structural form.