about: urbantells

East of Shanghai, China, 2015, summer. Hu Renyi – photograph

As an inter-disciplinary media artist, Stephen Bradley maps and traces our relationship to place through ecology, sound, and sculptural objects, including recorded narratives juxtaposed with artifacts discarded or lost in the landscape.  Bradley is a member of the Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS) where he continues his local ecological efforts with a collective of civic scientists and ecological activities.  Recently, he was awarded the CIRCA-IMET Artist-in-Residency for the project, Bio-Buggy: Ear to the Harbor that will begin this Fall 2021.   More information can be found here.

Summer 2019 he was an artist-residency at Wave Farm, Acra, NY in collaboration with composer, Edward Ruchalski.  They designed and performed a multi-phonic ecological radio installation informed by the surrounding biophonic soundscape.   The residency resulted in establishing a quarterly radio program, called Bells, Bugs, Whispers & Plinks that will be broadcast from Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7, Radio for Open Ears.   

Bradley has received solo commissions, awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maryland State Arts Council, Sonic Circuits VII: Walker Art Center, Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma – Helsinki, Blauschimmel Atelier – Oldenberg, Germany, Bienal de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, Biacs3 – Spain, Wave Hill – Bronx, NY, and Hull Time-Based Arts – UK.  His media installations, and site-specific art works have been exhibited and presented nationally and internationally at venues such as the National Trash Summit – Nationals Stadium – Washington D.C., Sandao Gallery, Xiamen University and VArts Center – Shanghai, China, radioCona FM – Ljublijana, Solvenia, InterAizoni Festival – Sardinia, Italy and Kunstradio ORF1 – Vienna, Austria.

Since 2010, Bradley has been an artist-in-residence serving Brooklyn-Curtis Bay and North Anne Arundel County community, where he engages with stakeholders involved in nomadic, interdisciplinary civic science, ecology, and art-making projects.  Bradley is also the current Linehan Artist Scholar director at UMBC and lives in Catonsville, Maryland, USA.