Lost Mary
HANDBAGS, 2024
Bradley Capello

December 13 – January 18, 2024
Opening: December 13, 6pm

and as part of
Other Places Art Fair
OPAF Tokyo / “他の場所”

Saturday, December 7, 2024, 11AM - 5PM
Cherry Blossom Garden at Yoyogi Park
Japan, 〒151-0052 Tokyo, Shibuya City, Yoyogikamizonocho, 神南２丁目

Aupuni Space is pleased to present Lost Mary, the latest collection of handbags by Oʻahu-based artist and visual merchandiser Bradley Capello. Self-referential and affectionately named after his favorite line of disposable vapes, each handbag in the 2024 collection is a sculptural construction made from materials harvested during the artist’s daily and nightly walks—through the hills of Kaimukī, streets of Kapahulu, backside of Waikīkī, slopes of Lēʻahi, and gates of Black Point. Sacred trash. Oozing amalgamations of mud-caked plastic, rusted metal, chewed up spit out bubble gum, long lost bric-a-brac, they tell our private stories of lust, greed, blood and sweat. A 12-channel video of the artist and his accessories in action intensifies the effects of an already dizzying scene. Manic in one hand, depressed in the other, Capello’s crazed relics comment on collective cycles of consumption and transformation, adding layers of meaning to the endlessly eroding land and seascapes of Hawaiʻi nei—Take a deep breath and give your body away.

Bradley Capello is an artist-organizer living and working in Kaimukī, Kona, Oʻahu. He was born and raised in Waialua, Oʻahu and Los Angeles, California. Capello’s work plays with the ideas of love and obsession, prayer and devotion, hedonism and restraint, sacred and secular. With an appreciation for the readymade and a predilection for pink-hued fluorescent excess, his work often takes the form of site-specific installation incorporating mixed media sculpture, light play, and sound. Capello has been included in exhibitions at the Honolulu Museum of Art, The Contemporary Museum, Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, SPF Projects, Aupuni Space, and was a featured artist for Honolulu Biennial 2019.