The Vanity Project

2005-Current

In an artistic field that values pseudonyms and being incognito, for this one artist, it is always very clear that « Brad Downey was here ».

As a comment on this aspect of his artistic practice, Downey has canvassed numerous fellow artists to create portraits of his self. These he has collected for this book, and they come from a wide spectrum of art practitioners, including sculptors, painters, authors, filmmakers, curators, graffiti artists and musicians. Other sources for portraits are even more eccentric. Together the works herein illuminate many aspects of a necessarily discreet artist, and push the boundaries of how we define what it is to be a portrait.

Matthew Murphy



Current list of contributors include:

additional undocumented contributions lost by Brad Downey on the ICE train from Vienna to Berlin 2010. (Thomas Palme, Christian Eisenberger, Nobuhiro Ishihara, and Martin Kastner)