What is my artwork about?
My current body of work presents a collection of sculpture, installation, painting and social practice that metamorphous from prank like shrugs into finely calibrated tools for the imperceptible transfer of ideas. Behind the guise of adolescent like observations of universal conundrums the cognitive catalysts contained in each work make it past the security of our better judgment, nagging at our insecurities and shattering any sense of complacency. This work offers reflections on moments that imprint our memory and shape our perspectives on larger concepts of hope, triumph, faith and humility.
Artist Statement
Constructing kinetic installations, animated and static painting, sculpture, video, assemblage, and collage I form visual paradoxes and parodies to create aphoristically condensed visual tableaus and phenomenon isolated from the everyday and glorified. Conflating painting with sculpture, mass-produced objects and imagery with high-art conventions, I evoke a mischievous and belligerent pop-art lineage that mimics the human endeavor to understand the universe through a confluence of real events, daydreams and preexisting fables. Simple pranks and tongue in check humor erode to display undercurrents of dissatisfaction and dysfunction. Humor in the work is related to a more academic definition of comedy with origins in the theatre of Ancient Greece where dramatic performances pit two societies against each other in an amusing conflict. The vantage point for this agon of comedy is a struggle between the powerless youth and societal conventions where the youth is left with little options other then to take dramatic unconventional action. With no attempt to disguise the material makeup, my methods of construction parallel the imperfections, flaws and vulnerability reveled in the subject’s characters.
CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014
Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, Seriously
2013
La Montagne Gallery, Boston
Storefront Bushwick, Brooklyn, 9:4:1
2012
Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, Forever 21
Nordine ZIDOUN, Luxembourg, Funny Business
2011
Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, Crush
2010
Galerie Sho Contemporary, Tokyo, Over The Hills and Far Away
Eastern Illinois University, Thriller, Tarble Arts Center
University of Maryland, The Bad, The Bad, The Bad
2009
University of Wisconsin, Be Hapi, Allen Priebe Gallery
Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Royal Turn
New York University Broadway Windows, Bold as Love
2008
Nordine ZIDOUN, Luxembourg, Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself
2006
Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, It Feels Good to be Faithful to You
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2014
Alpenliebe, Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-höhe, Austria
Grey Area, Bergdorf Goodman window, New York
2013
(con)TEXT, Sharon Arts Center, New Hampshire
AB, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Cut and Paste, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado
Thanks (curated), Lu Magnus, New York
2012
A Summer Group Show, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco
A Gleeful and Relentless Forward Moving of Time, Carmichael Gallery, Culver City
Young Curators, New Ideas IV, Meulensteen Gallery, New York
Post Acid, Small Black Door, New York
Ghost Face, Bobby Redd Project Space, New York
This Side of Paradise, Andrew Freedman House, New York
2011
Blind Spot, Airplane Gallery, New York
Shift Mindsets, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
Cowboy Mouth, St. Cecilia’s, New York
Al Ghaib, Aesthetics of the Disappearance, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE, and STUX, New York
2010
Growing Pains, Charles de Jonghe, Brussels, Belgium
The West at Sunset, Abrons Art Center, New York
Skowhegan at 92YTribeca, 92YTribeca, New York
Unveil, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia
Armed and Dangerous: The Art of the Arsenal, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield
2009
Thread Baring, Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
The Austerity Cookbook, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis
2008
State of the Art: New York, Urbis, Manchester, England
Feast of Burden, TSST Gallery, Hong Kong, 2008
Peekskill Project, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art
Summertime In Paris, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, QC
Galerie Nordine ZIDOUN, Paris, France
2007
VOXXOXO, Vox Populi, Philadelphia
I Died For Beauty, Newman Popiashvili, New York
Working Space 07, Cuchifritos, New York
EDUCATION
2008 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2001-2003 Tyler School of Art, Temple University, M.F.A. Painting
1996-2000 University of California at Santa Cruz, B.A. Painting
HONORS AND DISTINCTIONS
2012/13
AIRspace Residency, Abrons Art Center
Wave Hill Winter Residency Program
2011
Triangle Arts Residency Program
Swing Space Residency Program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
2010
Sculpture Space Residency Program
Elizabeth Foundation Studio Space
2009
Djerassi Residency
2008
Blue Mountain Artist Residency
Atlantic Center for the Arts
Jentel
Bemis
2007
Blue Sky Program, Illinois
2006
Chashama Studio Program, New York
Artists Alliance Inc, Rotating Studio Program, New York
Artists in Residence Program, Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2014
May 8, Laura Jaye Cramer, SF Weekly, “Seriously: Works by Adam Parker Smith at Ever Gold Gallery”
May 7, Kimberly Chun, San Fransisco Chronicle, “Adam Parker Smith: High and low cultural mix at Ever Gold”
April 29, Nathalie Danilovich, 7X7SF, “Superheroes, Stars, and Strange New Installations at SF’s Art Galleries”
April 2nd, Allyson Shiffman, Bedford and Bowery, “Adam Parker Smith at Brooklyn Artists Ball”
2013
Fall, Art Voices Magazine, “25 Artists to Watch and Collect”
May 28, Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, “A Much Larger Gambit”
May 8, Mateo Finale, The Boston Globe, “Critics’ Picks”
May 7, Lauren Scott Miller, The Huffington Post, “Theft and Building Community”
April 22, Jenni Crain, Whitewall Magazine, “Adam Parker Smith Stole 77 Artworks and Lived to Tell About It”
March 29, W. Mark Dendy, The Examiner, “Thievery is Part of The Process in Putting Together One Artist’s Exhibit”
March 28, Melena Ryzik, The New York Times, “Sticky Fingers Make the Show”
March 28, Paul D’agostino, The L Magazine, “Art Picks From Print”
March 13, Brian Boucher , Art in America, “Steal This Artwork: Adam Parker Smith Filches a Show”
March 8, Kristin Iversen, Brooklyn Magazine, “Storefront Bushwick: Art, Open to the Street”
Febuary 11, New York Magazine, “The Aprroval Matrix”
Febuary 4, Madison Mainwaring, Her Royal Majesty, “A Gallery Undone”
January 3, Katarina Hybenova, Bushwick Daily, “Adam Parker Smith @ Storefront Bushwick”
January 2, Paul D’Agostino, The L Magazine, “Brooklyn Art in 2013: What to Watch”
December 1, Alexander Bigman, SFAQ, “Forever 21”
2012
November 14, Kimberly Chun, San Francisco Chronicle, “Adam Parker Smith at Ever Gold”
November 14, Ben Valentine, Hyperallergic.com, “Ferris Bueller, Vodkamellons, and Other Youthful Follies”
September, Modern Painters, “Hot Picks”
July 10,Chloe Wyma, ARTINFO, “Bright Young Things”
June 12, Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic.com, “9 Artist to Watch from the 2012 Bushwick Open Studios”
Jun 7, Paddy Johnson, ARTFAGCITY.com, Bushwick Basel: “Best in Show”
May 5, Tina Orlandini, The Huffington Post, “Reinventing the Pop-up Gallery With Sights on Community”
May 31, NY Arts Magazine, “Four Shows To See During Bushwick Open Studios”
March 27, Jaime Rojo and Steven Harrington, The Huffington Post, “Poor House for the Rich Revitalized by the Arts”
March 21, Paul D’ Agostino, The L Magazine, “Phantasmagoria and Phalli at Ghost Face”
2011 September 21, Benjamin Sutton, The L Magazine, “Ten Must-Sees at This Weekend’s DUMBO Arts Festival”
August, Nie Yiting, Artforum.com, “Critics pick, Guangdong Times Museum”
March 22, Juxtapoz.com, “The Art of Adam Parker Smith”
March, David Everitt Howe, Art Review, “The West at Sunset”
2010
June 23, Deirdre Hering, The L Magazine, “See Something Among Works That Say Nothing”
May , Manya Scheps, Philadelphia Weekly, “Value City”
Spring, Rachel Wolff, Whitewall Magazine, “New Artist Profile”, Issue 17
January 19, Jonathan Wallis, City Paper Philadelphia, ““Unveil” at Tiger Strikes Asteroid”
2009
September/ October, Ian Bourland, Artforum.com, “Critics pick, The Austerity Cookbook”
June/July, Stacey Dewolfe, Montreal Mirror, “Guns N’ Antlers”
April / May, Art World, “Urbis Delivers Hot Stuff From New York”
April 30, Roberta Smith, The New York Times, “Humble Fabric Takes Center Stage”
April 15, Angela Kelly, Trafford Metro News, “Big Apple Art, but Bite-sized”
March 7, Karen Rosenberg, The New York Times, “Toplessness and Taxidermy in Art Fairs Surrounding Armory”
January 30, Didier Damiani, d’Land Kultur, “Corpus Christi Amen”
January 25, Francesco Amorosino, Nanni Magazine, “Adam Parker Smith: il futile tramonto immediate”
January 19, Laetitia Collin, La Voix, “Un Materialism Encombant”
January 14, Pablo Chimiente, Les Loisirs, “Drole De Communion”
2008 Allison Gibson, Beautiful Decay, Issue Y
September 26, Benjamin Genocchio, The New York Times, “In Peekskill, 2 Shows of Raw Works”
May, Michael Harvey, Art in America, “Review of Exhibitions”
March 29, Sarah Schmerler, New York Post, “Change of Art”
2007 December 18, R.C. Baker, Village Voice, “Recommendations by R.C. Baker”
Nov/Dec, Fiber Arts, “Artist and Teens: Bold as Love”
2006 February 5, William Pym, ArtForum.com, “Pay to Play”
April 9, Benjamin Genocchio, The New York Times, “Love, Without Makeup”
February 2-8, Lori Hill, City Paper Philadelphia, “Whales and Jails”
February 1, Lex Chalat, Phila