Robert Adams

Artist Statement

My works address history. I muse on family military tradition through portraits. My parents' families moved to the D.C. area for work after WWII, and passed down stories from 'back home' to keep us connected to family. Growing up in a military-government culture in the Washington D.C. area was fun as a kid, going to military museums, battlefield parks and playing with war toys. But when I wanted to grow my hair and get piercings as a teen, I realized militaristic conservatives weren't really my people. The art collections of the Smithsonian provided an alternate outlook. I continue to interrogate ideas of service, patriotism, and propaganda. I began making ‘zine-inspired photocopy collages in high school, branching into painting and assemblage after attending American University. Following travel and settling in Seattle, I began exhibiting in alternative spaces. I was accepted to graduate school in Oregon and moved there for my MFA.

I have continued my work through moves to Minnesota and Florida (my wife being an academic and taking new positions). My work has been exhibited in group shows around the U.S. Highlights have included a regional grant for a show of 200 Battleship game boards assembled into maps of the Great Lakes, in Duluth, MN; a show at the Seattle Art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery with two paintings purchased by the City of Seattle; and acceptance into the inaugural Triennial at the MOCA Jacksonville. Guest jurors selecting my work for shows have come from institutions including the Hirshhorn, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. Seattle Weekly, Eugene Weekly, Art Access, and Artweek magazine have shown my work. I taught at Lane Community College in Oregon from 2008-2011, served as Art Director for the Community Center for Performing Arts in Eugene, and I am currently Manager at Florida Mining Gallery in Jacksonville, Florida.

Folk artists inspired me to paint, in their ability to make beautiful creations out of the overlooked and the everyday. I began using pop imagery after a Maryland Conservation Corps job fishing colorful trash from streams. With an undergrad degree in Biology, my work has strong environmental concerns. I prefer a recycled palette in order to reduce new plastics (such as acrylic paint) that are currently saturating our environment and bodies. The Smithsonian's collections of Pop and Washington Colorist School works were a strong influences on me. I find that humor and an appreciation of the absurd are survival tools. The paradox of humanity's potential for creativity, measured against its penchant for ignorance and cruelty, continues to intrigue me. I combine disparate images and objects as a form of brainstorming, and as a metaphor for the layering of the self. In my work I invite the viewer to join me in thinking in new ways, to add new interpretations to the connections that I make.