Brady Fullerton (he/him) is a neurodivergent and mentally ill academic and lens-based artist whose photographic work raises philosophical questions regarding themes of trauma, isolation, mental health, addiction, ugliness, and beauty, through a visual exploration of the quotidian and mundane. His artistic practice is committed to the democratic and accessible ideals of photography. He believes that work that overemphasises traditional beauty, especially those works that elevate the most extreme versions of beauty that our overstimulated, consumerist culture demands, create a paradigm in which art cannot inform the everyday, it can only let us down. Instead, he is concerned with the ways that art informs our appreciation of everyday beauty and elevates our existence fundamentally through an ability to appreciate the banal as well as provide a greater theoretical understanding of the world around us.
Brady is also a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at the University of Guelph. His work in philosophy explores empirical approaches to evolutionary aesthetics. He is interested in the evolution of art as a social and cultural practice as well as empirical approaches to philosophical questions. In his work, he makes use of cross-cultural, phylogenetic, statistical, and machine-learning approaches. As an artist, he is deeply concerned with the limits of reductionism as it relates to empirical approaches to aesthetics.
Brady is committed to the importance of his work as both an artist and academic. This includes exploring the ways philosophical questions are raised in art as well as the ways they are raised in traditional philosophy. His award-winning photographic work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, online, in print, and at philosophy conferences. His artistic work is currently generously funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA). His philosophical work has been published and presented at conferences and has been generously funded by a number of groups including The University of Calgary, The University of Guelph, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).