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| Derrick Adams, Fun Fabulous Friends, 2014, Mixed media collage on paper, 48 x 72 inches. Image via jacktiltongallery.com. |
LIVE and
IN COLOR
September 10 – October 18, 2014
Opening reception: Wednesday, September 10, 6pm –
8pm
8 East 76th
Street
New York,
NY
Tilton
Gallery is pleased to present LIVE and IN
COLOR, Derrick Adams' third solo exhibition at the gallery. A collection of
faceted wood sculpture and large-scale mixed media collage, LIVE and IN COLOR captures the bold
character-dramatizations of black figures in entertainment.
Stills and
screen captures from sitcoms, music videos, news and stand-up are the point of
departure for the work and are used mainly for reference and inspiration. Most
are images taken from early TV sitcoms and serve as a study of role-playing,
and to deconstruct and reassemble black archetypes in American culture.
Exaggerated gestures and body language, interlaced with hard-edged blocks of
color and patterns, provide the subject with heightened emotion and theatrical
presence. Specifically, LIVE and IN COLOR
speaks to the colorful, larger than life personalities of people of color as
historically portrayed to the general public on national TV, and the
exaggeration of their psychological attributes and mannerisms in popular
culture.
To isolate
and highlight the constructed image, the collages are viewed through portals
made from corrugated paper covered with faux wood shelf liner to mimic vintage
television sets. The palette running through the work is limited (with the
addition of brown for the complexion of the figures) to those used in the test
pattern created by the Society for Motion Picture & Television Engineers
(SMPTE). This test pattern is abstracted to create an atmospheric space of
vibrant patterns and geometric forms.
Adams'
works have a pop-like simplicity of impact as clear lines and flat color define
figurative imagery. Yet the underlying structure has a cubist complexity that
he manipulates as he moves from one image to the next, from the two dimensional
to the three dimensional. Instantly readable, yet slow to decipher, the formal
aspects of Adams' art playfully speak to more serious subjects.
The early
broadcast-industry promotional phrase, LIVE
and IN COLOR, serves as the title for the show and, in this context, with
all puns intended, refers to the intense levels of color used and the
expressive gestures of the fractured, deconstructed figures illustrated. These
anthropological dissections of pop culture explore their psychological states
within the plane of absurd geometry.
Derrick
Adams, born in 1970, is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance,
painting, sculpture and music. He received his BA from Pratt Institute and his
MFA from Columbia University and is an alumnus of The Skowhegan School of
Painting & Sculpture. He has exhibited widely in New York, Chicago, Miami,
Boston, Aspen, London and Paris. He has participated in Performa 05, and his
work has been included in museum exhibitions at PS1/MoMA, New York (Greater New York, 2005); the
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Grey Art Gallery, New York University and
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (Radical
Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, 2012-14); and on numerous
occasions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. He is a recipient of a
Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, 2009 and an Honored Finalist for the 2011 William
H. Johnson prize.
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