Brad Adkins is a self-taught American artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

 currently residing in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. In 2002, Chas Bowie of The Portland Mercury

The Portland Mercury

The Portland Mercury is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon. It serves to chronicle the ever-changing Portland music scene, and generally includes interviews, commentaries, reviews, and concert dates...

 declared Adkins "the poster boy of low-rent artwork.", Also in 2002, D.K. Row of The Oregonian

The Oregonian

The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...

listed Adkins as one of ten "artists you don't know, but should." Matthew Stadler

Matthew Stadler

Matthew Stadler is a writer and editor who lives in Portland, Oregon. He has written four novels and received several awards and fellowships in recognition of his work. More recently, he has compiled four anthologies about literature, city life and public life...

 of Nest

Nest

A nest is a place of refuge to hold an animal's eggs or provide a place to live or raise offspring. They are usually made of some organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves; or may simply be a depression in the ground, or a hole in a tree, rock or building...

 and Clear Cut Press calls Adkins "an orchestrator of the quotidian", "whose interventions turn the everyday into art."

Adkins individual, collaborative, and curatorial work has been presented at the Marylhurst Art Gym, Consolidated Works

Consolidated Works

Consolidated Works was a "multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center" located successively in two former warehouses in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, USA, just west of what would be considered the Cascade neighborhood within South Lake Union...

, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Gallery, The Portland Art Museum

Portland Art Museum

The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in...

, and PICA

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art

The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in Portland, Oregon, United States was founded in 1996 by Kristy Edmunds, formerly the Director of the Portland Art Museum's "Art on the Edge" program...

; and has been noted and featured in ArtNews

ARTnews

ARTnews is an arts magazine based in New York, founded by James Clarence Hyde in 1902 as Hyde’s Weekly Art News. It is published 11 times a year.ARTnews covers all art, from ancient to Post-modernism...

, Artweek, Modern Painters

Modern Painters (magazine)

Modern Painters is a monthly art magazine published in New York City by Louise Blouin Media. The magazine is published 10 times per year; it includes profiles on two international artists per issue; columns by international contributors; interviews with and articles by contemporary artists and...

, Punk Planet

Punk Planet

Punk Planet was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music, Punk Planet also covered visual arts and a wide...

, and The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

. His work is represented in Portland by PDX Contemporary Art. Between 2002-2004, Adkins curated a 5" x 7" print gallery and a quarterly broadside for The Organ Review of the Arts. In 2004, Marriage Records

Marriage Records

Marriage Records is a small, independent record label based in Portland, Oregon, USA. It was founded in late 2002 by Curtis Knapp and Adrian Orange. The first release was a cd-r entitled Nothing by Thanksgiving. Marriage releases vinyl records, compact discs, CD-Rs, tapes, skateboards, books,...

 published BIG RED, an audio CD that documents an afternoon conversation between Adkins and Curtis Knapp (founder of Marriage Records) on the subjects of performance

Performance

A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...

, imitation

Imitation

Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.-Anthropology and social sciences:...

, and close-up magic

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

.

Between 2001-2004, he collaborated with Christopher Buckingham on multi-disciplinary projects and exhibitions under the name Charm Bracelet.