| Jessica Bradley | |
| Birth Name: | Jessica May Bradley |
| Birth Place: | Birmingham, U.K. |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Spouse: | Geoffrey James |
| Education: | B. A., English Literature & Art History, Carleton University, Ottawa (1971); Certificat des études en langue et culture française, L'Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France (1972); Honours year Art History, York University, Toronto (1972-1973); M.A., Communications/Cultural Studies, McGill University, Montreal (1991); Doctoral candidate, Ph.D. in Humanities (Art history, Critical Theory & Communications), Concordia University, Montreal (1993-1995) |
| Awards: | Canada Council grants in the Curator/Critics category (mid-career 1989, 1992 and Senior Arts Award, 1994); Doctoral fellowship, Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs a l’aide à la Recherche (Quebec), 1993-1994; Ontario Association of Art Galleries curatorial writing award, 1996. |
| Known For: | Curator of Contemporary Art |
Jessica Bradley (born 1948) has served as a curator for Contemporary art at the National Gallery of Canada (1979-1987) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (lead curator in the Department of Contemporary Art, 1995-2004), organizing many exhibitions in a broad range of Canadian and international art. She was known as a tastemaker in her institutional roles and later, as a gallerist.[1]
Bradley is the editor of an anthology of writing on Canadian contemporary art, Sight Lines: Reading Contemporary Canadian Art, and has authored several monographs, one of which will appear in 2024, on Betty Goodwin, many catalogues and articles in Journals.
Jessica Bradley was born in Birmingham, in the United Kingdom.[2] She emigrated to Canada with her family in 1951. They settled first in Victoria, B.C., and then in Ottawa. She attended Carleton University, Ottawa for her B. A. in English Literature & Art History (1971); received a Certificat des études en langue et culture française, from L'Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France (1972); and took an Honours year in Art History, at York University, Toronto (1972-1973). She received her M.A., in Communications/Cultural Studies, at McGill University, Montreal (1991); and was a Doctoral candidate, Ph.D. in Humanities (Art history, Critical Theory & Communications), at Concordia University, Montreal (1993-1995).[2]
Bradley began her career in 1972 at the National Gallery of Canada as an education officer and in 1974 became liaison and special projects officer for the Art Bank of the Canada Council for the Arts.[2] From 1979 to 1987, she was Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and from 1987 to 1995 she was a free-lance curator and critic in Montreal. In 1995 she was appointed Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, where she was responsible for acquisitions of contemporary art and exhibitions of artists from Canada and internationally. She was commissioner for Canada's representation at the Venice Biennale in 1982, 1984, and in 1999.[2]
Bradley organized exhibitions in Canada and abroad, including Displacements: Miroslaw Balka, Doris Salcedo and Rachel Whiteread (AGO 1997), and Rodney Graham: A Little Thought, produced by the AGO in collaboration with the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery (2004).[2] She initiated the "Present Tense" series of project exhibitions while at the AGO and has published widely. She is co-editor, with Lesley Johnstone, of the anthology Site Lines: Reading Contemporary Canadian Art (1995, Artext, Montreal), and her essays are found in several catalogues and books.[2] Her most recent publication will be in the Fall of 2024, Betty Goodwin: Life and Work.[3] [2]
Bradley has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in contemporary art history and critical theory at the University of Ottawa, Concordia University, Montreal, the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD), in Toronto, and was an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University, Toronto (1999-2005).[2] In 2005, she founded and directed Jessica Bradley Art + Projects in Toronto,[4] that later became known as the "Jessica Bradley Gallery", which was regarded as a trendsetter in Canada and internationally.[5] The gallery put on more than 80 exhibitions and specialized in the newer generations of artists.[6] It closed in 2015.[7] Since 2022, she has resided in Montreal where she is an independent curator and contemporary art consultant.[2]
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa:
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto:
Independent Exhibition Projects:
Bradley is a prominent writer on contemporary art in Canada. Her publications include texts in catalogues, independent books, and articles—several written for the Canadian Encyclopedia[20] . She has organized, co-organized, or contributed essays, to exhibitions or articles on the art of Giuseppe Penone (1983), and other international artists such as Miroslaw Balka, Doris Salcedo, and Rachel Whiteread (1998) and Rodney Graham (2004) as well as Canadian artists such as Tom Dean (1999), Jana Sterbak (1989, 1993), Jin-me Yoon (1987), Dominique Blain (1994), Liz Magor (1984) and Rebecca Belmore (1994).[2] She is the author of the e-book The Art of Betty Goodwin (Art Canada Institute, 2024). With Diana Nemiroff, she co-organized the landmark exhibition Songs of Experience which Peggy Gale, one of Bradley’s peers, described in Canadian Art magazine as "a weather-vane for institutional winds of change" in our national institutions.[21] Her book "Sight Lines: Reading Contemporary Canadian Art", a thematic anthology of 25 critical texts, co-edited with Lesley Johnstone, Montreal, was published by Editions Artexte (1994).[2]