Working with New York Street Artist Bradley Theodore

Late in 2017 acclaimed New York street artist Bradley Theodore spent two days at the Pitt Rivers Museum creating a new painting as a piece of free-to-view performance art which he then donated to the Museum. In my role as Education Officer it was a privilege to spend two days with Bradley, bering inspired and watching him inspire others.

The Artist at Work © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley Theodore © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley is a natural performer, even his trousers beame part of the art.

Bradley's Trousers © Pitt Rivers Museum

The opportunity to work with cutting edge artists like Bradley is one of the things I love most about my job. This short film gives a flavour of the experience. I filmed it on my phone so the footage and sound isn’t the best, but it is short:

Carribean-born Theodore has his roots in street art and has produced murals in Oslo, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Los Angeles. His vibrant artwork frequently features mammoths of the fashion world or historic figures stripped back to skeletal figures and has become instantly recognisable thanks to his distinctive ‘Dia de los muertos style’ (Mexican Day of the Dead); Vogue’s International Editor Suzy Menkes describes his work as ‘Banksy meets Basquiat’. Thanks to a growing number of high-profile collectors and celebrity admirers, Theodore’s renown is on the rise.

Bradley explains his art © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley is a talker, and is passionate about his work. While painting he was happy to chat to the public and school groups. He spent an inspiring half an hour talking to some year 10 artists about how to balance colour and the importance of maths in art. I think it is a school trip they’ll remember for quite a while.

Bradley at work © Pitt Rivers Museum

Bradley Theodore came to Oxford at the invitation of the Edgar Wind Society to paint and to talk about his life and art. A big thanks to Jemma and Geo for making this happen, and to Mike Peckett for taking much better photos than I did.

The studio © Pitt Rivers Museum

He said that he was going to donate a picture to the museum: he ended up giving us four, all his paintbrushes, and his paint. I have been using the brushes and paint for a community arts project in East Oxford. Thanks Bradley.

The finished Bradley Theodore of the Pitt Rivers
and the Museum of Natural History © Pitt Rivers Museum

The modern artist is never far from some digital inspiration.

Bradley gains some inspiration from his phone
© Pitt Rivers Museum

Andy McLellan
Head of Education
Pitt Rivers Museum

The art of sound and light at the Pitt Rivers Museum

Hopes and Fears from Pitt Rivers Museum on Vimeo.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is a great place to work if you enjoy rubbing shoulders with a vast range of creative people.  As an educator at the museum for quite a long time I have worked on some amazing and inspiring projects, but none simpler and more effective than working with sound and light artists Luxmuralis, and the whole project had a turnaround of six weeks.

I was approached by Fusion Arts in East Oxford and they suggested that they could apply for Arts Council funding for artists to project onto the front of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. At that point I didn’t realize quite how extensive their projections would be, but if you watch their short film you will get a pretty good idea. The forty minute long film was looped for the evening and the projections ran at the same time as one of our late night openings, Hopes and Fears.

1,400 people attended the event to experience talks, debates and live music in the museum while Luxmuralis did their magic on the outside of the building, mixing museum images, film and field recordings into an explosion of sound and light. The following week they took the film around town as a series of ‘guerilla’ projections.

Andy McLellan
Head of Education