Kohn Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Brooklyn-based surrealist artist Alicia Adamerovich. This will be Adamerovich’s inaugural show with the gallery, and will be on view concurrently with Frieze Los Angeles. In This is the time of the hour, Adamerovich studies themes of overwhelm through introspective alien landscapes and wood sculptures that traverse the subconscious, inviting her audience to visualize their own psychological state.
The landscapes – seemingly barren with their darkened color palette and unsettling, organic surfaces of pumice, gel, and sand – come gracefully alive with radiant orbs and spiraling, structured appendages. Works like Blessed be thy cavity communicate the duality of seen and unseen, or as Adamerovich writes, “connections between emotion and the dichotomy of familiarity and alienation.” The appearance of protrusion and recession in her compositions carries over to her sculptural practice as seen in Blaring in a vacuum. The amorphous shapes in Adamerovich’s works are anthropomorphic and seductive in nature with soft curvatures alternately drawn from the realms of the arboreal, anatomical, and fantastical.
The physicality of Adamerovich’s practice allows for an interplay between interpretations of negative space and interior illuminations. Beyond introspection, other references guiding This is the time of the hour are the forests of her hometown in western Pennsylvania, creatures in an 80s sci-fi feature, and ancient artifacts presented in futuristic forms.
“These forms represent thoughts and feelings,” Adamerovich explains. “I’m not trying to remake anything from our physical world; everything I’m making is psychological.”
Adamerovich’s work recalls the dreamlike renderings of Dorothea Tanning, and Lee Bontecou’s melding of the natural and fictional. The voyeuristic portals found in her work articulated through surreal tenebrosity and subjects allow a glimpse into something strangely intimate and private though welcoming of personal interpretation: “Although the experiences I’m able to create are personal, I think the ‘hard-to-place-ness” of being alive is universal in its absolute ridicule. Absurdity is a deeply familiar sensation and it runs deep throughout. It has everything to do with living in today’s world.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alicia Adamerovich was born in Latrobe, PA and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her Bachelor’s of Design from Pennsylvania State University in 2013. Adamerovich has been a recipient of several residencies including the Del Vaz Projects Residency, Los Angeles, CA; Moly Sabata Artist Residency, Albert Gleizes Foundation, Sablons, FR; and Palazzo Monti Residency, Brescia, IT. Her work has been included in exhibitions throughout France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, and Canada. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Vibrant Matter, FISK Gallery, Portland, OR (2019); A Bat out of Hell, Sans Titre (2016), Paris, FR (2021); Day, Galerie Tator, Lyon, FR (2021); To be a giant and keep quiet about it, Margot Samel, New York (2022); Ultra-gentle manipulation of delicate structures, Projet Pangée, Montréal, QC (2022) and her solo exhibition This is the time of the hour at Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2023).
