At first glance, it may appear silly, even juvenile. Beach balls, rubber duckies, and giant ice cream sandwiches spread all over the floor of Project For Empty Space at Gateway Project Spaces leave onlookers baffled. But it’s not at all silly – and far from juvenile. The gallery is currently showing Culture Club, a solo exhibition by Artist-In-Residence Derrick Adams, on view through July 13th, 2016.
Culture Club is a solo project of large-scale works on paper exploring ideas of celebration, highlighting the Black figure in the context of contemporary culture and leisure. With a nod to cultural perseverance, the display gives perspective to the creative output of Black America as a reaction to the joys and struggles of just being.
Adams’ seriocomic approach in Culture Club is achieved through a series of figurative paintings, mixed-media collages and installations. Twenty pool-lounging figures, known as the “Floaters,” traverse the gallery, functioning both as individual vignettes and as a nonlinear narrative. Each floater is a swath of blue acrylic on paper that incorporate collaged elements depicting swimming pool scenes of figures in states of rest and play on inflatable and whimsical pool floats. The “Floater” paintings are joined by additional collage works resembling aerial views of table settings of celebratory gatherings, communicating collectiveness and family history – past, present and future, surviving and thriving
African heritage and American nationalism are central to the conversation taking place in Culture Club. The work explores this relationship, offering a commentary on the joy of the present, and simultaneously presenting a direction for the future. The exhibit also boldly challenges the commonly accepted “look but don’t touch” rules within fine art galleries. Most noteworthy, the audience is invited to not only observe and mentally engage the work, but to literally play. Lay out and take a selfie on the flamingo…or the duckie…or the ice cream sandwich. Over the course of the exhibit, the inflatable pieces never stay in the same place twice.
Since 2001, Adams has exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally, including MoMA PS1; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Studio Museum in Harlem; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Contemporary Art Museum Houston; Birmingham Museum of Art; and PERFORMA ‘05, ‘13 (commissioned by the Calder Foundation), and ‘15; Adams’ work is in the permanent collections at MoMA, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Birmingham Museum of Art. He recently served as guest curator for the inaugural curated section of VOLTA NY 2016.
Adams’ work can be seen in New York at Tilton Gallery; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; Gallerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris; and online at derrickadams.com.
