Derrick Adams: CULTURE CLUB
May 18 - June 24, 2016

Culture Club was a solo exhibition by previous Artist-In-Residence, Derrick Adams. The exhibition consisted 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 gave perspective to the creative output and outlet of Black America as a reaction to the joys and struggles of just being.

Adams' seriocomic approach in Culture Club was achieved through a series of figurative mixed media painting-collages and installations. A spread of twenty pool-lounging figures, better known as the “Floaters,” traversed the gallery, where they functioned both as individual vignettes and as a nonlinear narrative. Each floater was a swath of deep blue acrylic on paper that incorporated collaged elements of vivid African prints and other graphic textiles depicting swimming pool scenes of figures in states of rest and play on inflatable and whimsical pool floats. The “Floater” paintings were joined by additional collage works that resembled aerial views of table settings of celebratory gatherings and festive unions, communicating collectiveness and family history - past, present and future, surviving and thriving.

African heritage and American nationalism were central to the conversation taking place in Culture Club and explored this relationship. It offered not only a commentary on the joy of the present; but also, presented a direction for the future.

About the Artist
Derrick Adams is a multidisciplinary New York-based artist and former Curatorial Director of Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea. Adams received his MFA from Columbia University and BFA from Pratt Institute and is an alumni of the Skowhegan School and Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. His awards include a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, S.J. Weiler Award, and an Agnes Martin Fellowship.

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 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 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