Given That All Things are Equal, 2009, 60 X 144", oil on panel
Artist Statement
The long, meandering, and challenging process that brought me to art making involved a never-quite-fulfilled reclamation of my own freedom as a woman living in the world today.
To do so my paintings must ask difficult questions of both me and of the viewer. These questions fuse my personal feelings of joy, sadness, rage, and despair – things I am often afraid to look straight in the face - with larger concerns of spiritualism, pathos, and the strangely complicated and enigmatic discourse between human beings.
The images that appear and reappear in my work stem from a desire to suffuse sources of inchoate matter – the formal elements, the grist of art – with a deeply felt, psychologically-charged world-view, which in turn allows my personal integrity to merge with larger, more universal concerns, cathartic to me, accessible to the viewer
In my most recent work, I create a negotiated reality forged from the world of the imagined—images of a Ground Zero (rather than Edenic) natural world with urban artifacts--to create a largely graffiti-free netherworld, animated by a tension between the unexpected and the predictable. By creating a “safe” space for myself in which to imagine, I offer the viewer an opportunity for Koan-like contemplation, a moment not Here nor There but somewhere In-Between.
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Lisa Adams is a painter and public artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Adams graduated with a B.A. in Painting from Scripps College in Claremont, California and received her M.F.A. from the Claremont Graduate University.
She is the recipient of a Fulbright Professional Scholar Award, a Brody Arts Fund Fellowship and a Durfee ARC Grant. Her work is in the collections of Eli Broad, The Frederick Weisman Museum and the Laguna Museum of Art.
She has taught in many reputed art departments throughout the Los Angeles area and abroad, including the University of Southern California, the
Claremont Graduate University and Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles.
In addition to her practice as an artist, Ms. Adams works as an independent curator, who in 2000, co-founded Crazy Space, an alternative exhibition
space, in Santa Monica. She is also the author of "FM*," (Peeps Island Press, 1999) a How To book about painting, based on her teachings at the
Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture between 1997-1999.
Ms. Adams has been an artist-in-residence in Slovenia, Finland, Japan, Holland and Costa Rica. Her work has been exhibited nationally and
internationally. She was also commission by BMW of North America to paint an ArtCar. She has been included in ³A Day in the Life of the American
Woman, ³ Bullfinch Press, 2005, and is currently working on a public art commission for the new Fire Station No. 64 in Watts.
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EDUCATION
M.F.A., Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
B.A., Scripps College, Claremont, CA
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009
THE FUTURE OF PARADISE PAST, Lawrence Asher Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007
I LIKE INTERROGATIVES, Lawrence Asher Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005
HELLO. IT’S ME, White Box Gallery, Marina del Rey, CA
REMEMBER? I CAN’T REMEMBER, Greenleaf Gallery, Whittier College, Whittier, CA
2004
WHAT HAPPENED?, The Office, Huntington Beach, CA
2003
WISH I WAS HERE, The Sandbox, Venice, CA
2002
IMPERFECTION, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2001
HOW PERFECT IS PERFECT?, The Living Room, Santa Monica, CA
2000
APOCALYPSE TWINS, (collaborative art team the “apocalypse twins” with Jill Giegerich), Crazy Space, Santa Monica, CA
WORKS ON PAPER, Takumi Studios, Gifu Design 2000, Gifu City, Japan
1999
WORK FROM FINLAND, 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA
PAINTING--NEW WORK, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
NEW PAINTINGS, New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA
1998
RECENT PAINTINGS, Gallery Paradiso, Costa Mesa, CA
1997
MNEMONICS, Miller Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
1995
SMALL WORKS, 12 x 12 Gallery, Taos, NM
RECENT PAINTINGS, College of Southern Nevada, North Las Vegas, NV
1994
RECENT PAINTINGS, William Turner Gallery, Venice, CA
1993
TETHER, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA
1992
PHYSICAL CURIOSITIES, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA
PERSONAL MARKS, Century Gallery, Sylmar, CA
1991
SCHEMA, Daniel Maher Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1990
DIARIES, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA
1989
LISA ADAMS, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA
1988
EVIDENCE, L.A. Nicola, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2000-2008
2009
Edenistic Divergence, RAM
Riverside, CA see invite
2008
SOME PAINTINGS, 3rd LA WEEKLY ANNUAL BIENNIAL,Track 16, Santa Monica, CA
JOINT CUSTODY PROJECT, Found Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
LE FEMME, Art Whino, National Harbor, MD
DISMORPHIC VISUALIZATION SYNDROME, The Zero One Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
EDGES AND BOUNDARIES, Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
SUM OF PARTS, dba256 Gallery, Pomona, CA
2007
BIG SECRET CASH, Angstrom Gallery, Culver City, CA
SIX, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA
THE BOOK OF LIES, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA
L.A. ETHOS, Pharmaka, Los Angeles, CA
GRAND OPENING, Soho Myriad, Los Angeles, CA
2006
GOOD TO GO, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA
ABSOLUTE CONTROL OVER EVERY LIVING SOUL, Hanger 1018, Los Angeles, CA
FIN, Bedlam Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
VITAL GROUND, The House of Fine Art, Livingston, MT
ORION’S SHORTS, First Annual Film Festival, Landers, CA
2005
PINK, Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
THE FIRST 80YEARS, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
LOCAL ARTISTS: PAINTING AND WALL SCULPTURE, Venice Art Gallery, Venice, CA
SMACK! At the brewery project, Los Angeles, CA
THE USUAL SUSPECTS, Thomas Lavin, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
THE SOCIAL,
The Arsenal, Los Angeles, CA
2004
CARPETBAG + COZYSPACE, Healing Arts Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
L.A.WOMAN, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA
31 FLAVORS, Antai Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
unRAVEL, at the brewery projects, Los Angeles, CA
VISUAL POETRY, Healing Arts Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2003
TINSELTOWN, Domestic Setting, Los Angeles, CA
NOTEBOOK, Pinkard Gallery, Bunting Center, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
DEEP WATER RUNS STILL, Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
PAINTING TODAY, The Art Institute of California, Santa Ana, CA
THE USUAL SUSPECTS, Bedlam Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
BEAUTY STRIPPED BARE, L.A. BLACK AND WHITE, BGH Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
A RALLY FOR TRIPLE CANDIE, Triple Candie, New York, NY
2002
IMPROMPTU: IMPROVISATION WITH DIGITAL MEDIA, UCR/California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
VAN AND HATCH-BACK SHOW, East Side Crawl, Los Angeles, CA
BIG WAVE IV, AndrewShire Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
FIRST RUN, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
UTOPIAN GRID, Coagula Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
TRANSIT PROJECTS: SURVIVAL L.A., Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
4TH ANNUAL VIDEO MARATHON, Art in General, New York, NY
GENERATION WHY, (“You Are Here,” video with Jill Giegerich as the apocalypse twins), Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
2001
FAULTLINES, Crazy Space, Santa Monica, CA
THE TOTALLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT SHOW, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
MISSION INTERGALACTIC, (collaborative installation with Lauren Hartman), Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
THE PORTRAIT SHOW, New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA
THEWINTER MUSEUM, Electric Lodge, Venice, CA
GAS, GRASS, OR ASS: THE VAN SHOW, (collaboration with Leigh Salgado), East Side Crawl, Los Angeles, CA
FIRST OF THE MONTH VIDEO SCREENING PROJECT, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA
2000
WORKS ON PAPER, Upstairs Gallery, Highways, Santa Monica, CA
COLLABORATIONS, the apocalypse twins (collaboration team with Jill Giegerich) Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
VIDEO BLOWOUT!, Crazy Space, Santa Monica, CA
CELESTIAL DETRITUS, (collaborative installation with Lauren Hartman), the Spurgeon Experience, Santa Ana, CA
COLLABORATIONS, (collaboration with Lauren Hartman), New Image Art, Los Angeles, CA
PERSONALS--GOING DUTCH, at the brewery project, Los Angeles, CA
BIBLIOGRAPHY 2000-2008
2008
Harvey, Doug; “Some Paintings,” L.A. WEEKLY, VOL. 30/NO. 8, January 11-17
Davies, Stacy; “Connecting the Dots,” INLAND EMPIRE WEEKLY, VOL. 2, ISSUE 49, March13-19
2007
Geer, Suvan; “Lisa Adams,” ART SCENE, September
2006
Hart, Scot, “Artist Profile,” LIFESCAPES, June/July
2005
Saline, Carol, Dawn Sheggeby and Sharon Wohlmuth; A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN: HOW WE SEE OURSELVES. New York: Bullfinch (reproduction only)
2004
Otto, Susan; “Reviews,” ART IN AMERICA, January
Pence, Elizabeth; “Patrons of the Arts: Conversations,” ANGELENO MAGAZINE, June
Pence, Elizabeth; “Reviews, L.A. Woman at Gallery C,” ARTWEEK, June, Vol. 35, Issue 5
Mendenhall, Lauri; “Art Access,” COAST, May
Frank, Peter; “Pick of the Week: L.A. Woman,” LA WEEKLY, May 6
Schoenk opf, Rebecca; “Wank,” OC WEEKLY, May 6
Wood, Eve; “Mojo Rising,” artnet.com, April 29
2003
Gleason, Mat; “Art Angelenos, 24 Hot Tickets To The L.A. Scene,” MODERN PAINTERS MAGAZINE, March
Calder, Diane; “Lisa Adams,” ART SCENE, March
2002
Grundy, Gordy; “Transit Projects: Survival L.A., exhibition catalogue essay, July
Scarborough James; “Reviews,” NY ARTS MAGAZINE , May, Vol. 7, No. 5
Lasarow, Bill; “Lisa Adams,” ART SCENE, April
Gleason, Mat; “Lisa Adams, Solo Show at Patricia Correia Gallery,” COAGULA ART JOURNAL, April
Gleason, Mat; “Mat’s On-Line Journal,” March 12
2001
Muchnic, Suzanne; “Tower of Independent Power,” LOS ANGELES TIMES, April15
2000
Tgelaers, Theo; “Personals, Part 2, Look-A-Like,” exhibition catalogue essay, September
O’Brien, John; “Personals,” exhibition cataloque essay, March
Woodard, Josef; “‘A Spot in the Mind’” at I-5 Gallery, ARTWEEK, March, Vol. 31, No. 3
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2002
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, The Julia and David White Artists’ Colony, Costa Rica
2000
ARTISTS’ RESOURCE FOR COMPLETION GRANT, The Durfee Foundation
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, World Design City, Gifu Prefecture, Japan
1999
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
1997
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, Pont Aven, France (not realized)
INSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR, University of California, Los Angeles Extension
1996
FULBRIGHT PROFFESSIONAL SCHOLAR AWARD TO SLOVENIA
1993
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS EXCHANGE TO JAPAN, finalist
1992
BRODY ARTS FUND FELLOWSHIP
1991
FULBRIGHT PROFESSIONAL SCHOLAR AWARD, finalist
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
EDWARD ALBEE FOUNDATION, Montauk, NY
HOWREY AND SIMON, Los Angeles, CA
ARATEX, Burbank, CA
NIPPON STEEL USA INC., Los Angeles, CA
LAGUNA MUSEUM OF ART, Laguna Beach, CA
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, Scottsdale, AZ
ELI BROAD, Los Angeles, CA
JOHNSON FAIN PARTNERS, Los Angeles, CA
JEFFERY DANIELS & ASSOC., Los Angeles, CA
SHERATON HOTEL, Yokohama, JAPAN
FREDERICK FISHER & PARTNERS, Santa Monica, CA
TAJIMA CORPORATION, Los Angeles, CA
USSO COMPANY LTD., Tokyo, Japan
HARRAH’S CASINO, Atlantic City, NJ
CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, Orange, CA
ROUND TRIP LLC, Los Angeles, CA
CAPITOL HILL HYATT, Washington DC
PHILADELPHIA HILTON, Philadelphia, PA
