Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce JIM ADAMS: Eternal Witness, on view from January 9 through February 27, 2021. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, January 9th, from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm; visitors are encouraged to make an appointment. Eternal Witness marks Adams first solo exhibition with the Gallery. The exhibition will present new paintings and sketches completed over the last four years along with a selection of works dating to the turn of the millennium.
The works in Eternal Witness draw primarily from Mythic Sketches, a body of work Adams has pursued consistently over the past three decades. They manifest mostly as studies of pyramids or portraits of deities. Adams notes that he portrays these figures in the garb of contemporary fashion in much the same way that historical painters portrayed mythical figures in the fashion of their own time. Examined through his lifelong interest in cultural meta-narratives, especially those drawn from Egyptian and Classical mythologies, Adams use of iconography acknowledges the long history of artistic representation associated with his mythic subjects which he purposively contemporizes.
It is tempting to read Adams’ art as an expression of Afro-Futurism, given both his own race and his frequent references to Nubia, space, flight, and ancient Egyptian mythology. The repeated casting of young Black men and women in the role of classical heroes and deities supports this argument; but it is important to see these aspects within the broader context of his practice. For as many paintings as there are of specific people, places, and times, there are an equal number of ahistorical, dreamlike worlds. Just as much as Adams draws upon current events and geopolitics, so too does he capture the seemingly apolitical: dramatic skyscapes, planetary eclipses, and astral constellations.
By contrast, many of Adams’ larger canvases vary wildly in terms of color palette, subject matter, and composition; yet Adams insists that the pyramids which appear throughout the series are still the basis upon which he constructs almost all of his more refined works. Even if they do not appear in a larger-scale canvas, they are nevertheless their conceptual origin, providing Adams with the means to see things “in perspective.”
In his essay for the exhibition, the British-Canadian curator Rhys Edwards writes: “It is the paradox of the pyramid which underlies the art of Jim Adams. An ‘eternal symbol,’ it is always more than what it seems. Its cache extends beyond its own history. Likewise, Adams’ myths always extend beyond their own precepts; they are never fixed, never singular, never the monoliths they may appear to be.”
There is something to be said for the consistency with which Adams returns to this series. It reflects his fascination with the eternal recurrence of conflict and the perennial truths of myth and belies a steadfast refusal to succumb to the dominant trends of painting. But the paradox of this position is that it is itself deeply personal. In a contemporary art market ravenous for the relentlessly new, Adams stands apart in his uncompromising commitment to his own vision of the world.
Jim Adams was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1942 and has lived and worked in British Columbia since 1969. Adams received his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Temple University in 1965 and his master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. Adams began his teaching career while in graduate school at the Fleisher Memorial Art School and as a lecturer for the Print Club of Philadelphia. He later taught at California State University, Long Beach and the Laguna Beach School of Art and Design (Laguna College of Art and Design). In 1970, after a brief time in Vancouver, he settled in Surrey, BC, and took up a position in the Fine Arts Department at Douglas/Kwantlen University College (KPU), where he taught until his retirement in 2000.
Among Adams’s most prominent exhibitions are The Irretrievable Moment (2017), a two-museum retrospective presented concurrently at The Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey and The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford; Mythic Sketches (2014) at the Newton Cultural Centre, Surrey; Re: Mix (2015) at the Surrey Art Gallery; and Tribute: The Art of African Canadian Artists (2006) at the Peel Art Gallery Museum + Archives in Brampton, ON, and the Mississauga Art Gallery in Mississauga, ON. He has also been featured in solo and group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC; Amelia Douglas Gallery, New Westminster, BC; Richmond Art Centre, Richmond, BC; A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON; Metro Hall, Toronto; Berkeley College at Yale University, New Haven, CT; Peterson Library, University of Connecticut, West Haven, CT; as well as Art Toronto, EXPO Chicago and UNTITLED. Art Miami, and numerous other venues.
For further information, please contact the gallery at 310-838-6000, or email gallery@luisdejesus.com.
