Brady Cranfield is a Vancouver-based sound and visual artist, musician, and writer. He holds a MA in Communications and a MFA from Simon Fraser University. He is the founder and co-organizer (in collaboration with the artist Kathy Slade) of the ongoing public art project The Music Appreciation Society, and he frequently collaborates with artist Jamie Hilder. He is currently also a member of the improv/electronic/jazz trio Alfred Jarry and the duo Vomit Fraud with Kay Higgins.
I recognize that I’m an uninvited guest on the stolen, occupied, and unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people.
CV
Education
Master of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, 2005.
Master of Arts in Communication from Simon Fraser University, 2004.
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Communication from Simon Fraser University, 1999.
Solo + Collaborative Exhibitions
2021 The Brewer Beaver (with Andrea Nunes), Fort Gallery, Fort Langley
2021 Weekend Chime, City of Vancouver.
2015 Interim Measures (with Jamie Hilder), 8-11, Toronto.
2013 Due to Injuries… (with Jamie Hilder), 221A, Vancouver.
2012 Night Shift (with Jamie Hilder), Or Gallery, Vancouver.
2007 Island Developments (with Jamie Hilder), Artspeak, Vancouver.
2006 Day Tripper, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
2006 Six Sound Works (MFA exhibition), Or Gallery, Vancouver.
2004 Haunted: The Dominion Building, Western Front, Vancouver.
Group Exhibitions
2022 Listening to Pictures: Artists on the SFU Art Collection, SFU Galleries, Burnaby
2022 too much light is blinding, SFU Woodward’s, Vancouver
2021 The view from here: Selections from the SFU Art Collection, SFU Gallery, Burnaby.
2020 The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
2018 Artspeak Radio Digest, Artspeak, Vancouver.
2018 13 Ways to Summon Ghosts, Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art, North Vancouver.
2015 Through a Window: Visual Art and SFU 1965-2015, Audain Gallery, Vancouver.
2013 Some Woolly Buzz, Publication Studios, Vancouver.
2010 Walk in / Here You Are, City of Vancouver.
2010 Open Sound: play.back.work, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey.
2010 RIOT SONGS, with Kathy Slade, live performance at the Candahar Bar, for Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver.
2009 Science Fiction 01, Or Gallery, Vancouver.
2009 The Communism of Forms: Sound + Image + Time – The Strategy of Music Video, Red Bull 381 Projects, Toronto.
2009 How Soon is Now (with Kathy Slade as The Music Appreciation Society), The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
2008 The Sound I'm Looking For: Part 2, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver.
The Music Appreciation Society Events
2018 The Music Appreciation Society presents Past Future Tense, DJ performance, The Vancouver Art Gallery’s FUSE event, Vancouver.
2016 The Music Appreciation Society presents: 432, 440, and the Sun, sound performance, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver.
2014 Hey hey mama said the way you move: Music Appreciation Society Presents Led Zeppelin, with Myfanwy MacLeod, Kevin Schmidt, Phil Smith, and Jean Smith, followed by a musical performance by KID ZEPPELIN, Vancouver Art Gallery, in support of Myfanwy Macleod: or There and Back Again, Vancouver.
2014 For a Long, Long, Long Time: The Music Appreciation Society Presents Drones, with Eli Bornowsky, Mark Halpern, Andrea Lukic, Giorgio Magnanensi, Harkeerat Mangat, and Jeremy Schmidt, live drone performance by Joshua Stevenson, and introductory remarks by Sarah Davachi, SFU Galleries, Vancouver.
2013 The Music Appreciation Society presents Revolution, with Raymond Boisjoly, Stan Douglas, Lief Hall, Donato Mancini, and Cecily Nicholson, presented by SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Vancouver.
2012 Kathy Slade and Brady Cranfield: Record Appreciation, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle.
2011 The Music Appreciation Society Presents: WRONG WAVE 2: ART ROCK IS DEAD/LONG LIVE ART ROCK, with UJ3RK5, Mathew Sawyer, Eli Bornowsky, Myths, Flash Palace, Andrea Lukic, B-Lines, and Cowards, for UNIT/PITT Society for Art & Critical Awareness, Vancouver.
2009 The Music Appreciation Society Presents: The Smiths Research Intensive, with Jeff Derksen, Lucien Durey, Candice Hopkins, Kristina Lee Podesva and David Wisdom, The Vancouver Art Gallery as part of the How Soon is Now, Vancouver.
2008 Music Appreciation Society, with Sabine Bitter, Jeff Derksen, Holly Ward, Kevin Schmidt, Mark Soo, and Elizabeth Zvonar, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
2007 Music Appreciation Society, with Rodney Graham, Rich Jensen, Mike McGonigal, and Kathy Slade, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle.
2007 Music Appreciation Society, with Jennifer Gately, Marc Joseph, Matt McCormick, Kathy Slade, and Gus Van Sant, Disjecta, Portland.
2006 The Music Appreciation Society Presents: The Saddest Music in the World…Ever, with Jade Blade, Peter Culley, Tim Lee, Laura Piasta, and Matthew Sawyer, Or Gallery, Vancouver.
2004 The Music Appreciation Society, with Clint Burnham, Sydney Hermant, Rodney Graham, Nardwuar, Kathy Slade, and Althea Thauberger, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
Published Art Projects
2014 Night Shift, with Jamie Hilder, vinyl 12-inch, Or Gallery, Vancouver.
2012 10 RIOT SONGS, with Kathy Slade, vinyl 12-inch, Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver.
2009 12 Sun Songs, with Kathy Slade, vinyl 12-inch, Or Gallery, Vancouver, and JPR Ringier, Zurich.
2009 Sunshine Daydream/Maerdyad Enihsnus, with Kathy Slade, vinyl 7-inch, Fillip Magazine, Issue 9, Vancouver.
2007 “Bass and Superstructure,” Pyramid Power, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Vancouver.
2006 The Music Appreciation Society Presents: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, The Charles H. Scott Press, Vancouver, and JPR Ringier, Zurich.
2005 Forward/Backward, vinyl 7-inch, Artspeak for the Correlated Rotations publication, Vancouver.
Curatorial and Organization
2010 “Listen Again: The Changing World of Everyday Sound, Audio, and Noise & The Future of Sound Studies”, symposium, part of the Open Sound series, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey.
2010 "Music for Lunch Breaks", part of Walk In/Here You Are, City of Vancouver.
Writing
2018 “Charting Kathy Slade's Soundless Chords,” in Kathy Slade: This is a Chord. This is Another, Surrey Art Gallery (originally for the Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Spring 2006).
2015 “Grey All Over: Neil Wedman’s Newspapers,” in Neil Wedman: Selected Monochromatic Paintings and Works on Paper, ECU Press and Charles H. Scott Gallery.
2014 “If There’s a Bustle in Your Hedgerow: An Essay on Listening to Music by The Music Appreciation Society” (with Kathy Slade as The Music Appreciation Society)), in Myfanwy Macleod: or There and Back Again, Vancouver Art Gallery / Black Dog Publishing.
2006 “Kathy Slade and the Infinite Sadness of Utopian Melancholy”, talk for Canadian Art’s “Gallery Hop Vancouver”, Spring.
2005 “By All Means Listen By All Means,” book revue, The Fillip Review, Winter
2002 “Producing Noise: Oval and the Politics of Digital Audio”, essay for Parachute Magazine, Issue 107.
Bands
Kid Champion, Blaise Pascal (second lineup), The Secret Three, Cowbell, The Birthday Machine, Video Tokyo, Countless Jibes, The Book of Lists, Leviathans, Womankind, Hot Towers, Alfred Jarry, Vomit Fraud.