American artist Joe Bradley’s artworks often evoke children’s drawings and comic books—playful, experimental, and intentionally naive—while freely referencing art movements from Color Field painting to Abstract Expressionism. This light-hearted energy is essential to his work: Bradley’s artistic revelations come from the creative act itself, an ethos that calls to mind the Buddhist mantra “chop wood and carry water.”

In “Sub Ek,” a new exhibition at Eva Presenhuber in Zurich, the Maine-born artist is debuting 10 new paintings and 46 drawings that merge kaleidoscopically colorful, fantastical figures and shapes into dense, darkly rendered backgrounds. The spirit of the exhibition is one of ecstatic discovery: “Sub Ek” is a mystic phrase found in Buddhism and Hinduism that signifies the oneness of all things and beings.

A psychedelic quality imbues these seemingly childlike works; active, even hallucinogenic lines and shapes pulsate in both the paintings and the drawings. This new dialogue speaks to the unifying spirit of the show.

“That’s been a stubborn desire over the last five years: to bring more drawing into the painting, and more of what’s happening into my paintings,” Bradley said in a statement. “I get the feeling that uniting those two things will make for a more holistic practice.”

See images from “Joe Bradley: Sub Ek” below. 

Installation view “Joe Bradley: Sub Ek” 2020. Courtesy of Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich © Joe Bradley.

Installation view “Joe Bradley: Sub Ek” 2020. Courtesy of Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich © Joe Bradley.

Joe Bradley, Blasted Heath (2019). © Joe Bradley Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / New York

Joe Bradley, Untitled (2019). © Joe Bradley Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / New York.

Joe Bradley, Virgo (2020). © Joe Bradley Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / New York.

Joe Bradley, No Good (2020). © Joe Bradley Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / New York.

“Joe Bradley: Sub Ek” is on view at Eva Presenbuber Zurich through October 31, 2020.