Derrick Adams is a New York-based artist whose critically admired work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations. His multidisciplinary practice engages the ways in which individuals’ ideals, aspirations, and personae become attached to specific objects, colors, textures, symbols, and ideologies. His work probes the influence of popular culture on the formation of self-image, and the relationship between man and monument as they coexist and embody one another. Adams is also deeply immersed in questions of how Black experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. Most notably in his Floater series, he portrays Black people at leisure, positing that respite itself is a political act when embraced by Black communities. The radicality of this position has materialized in Adams’ work across his Deconstruction Worker, Figure in the Urban Landscape, and Beauty World series.

In formal terms, Adams’ practice is rooted in Deconstructivist philosophies related to the fragmentation and manipulation of structure and surface, and the marriage of complex and improbable forms. His tendency to layer, hybridize, and collage not only images and materials, but also different types of sensory experiences, link the artist to an estimable lineage of pioneers ranging from Hannah Höch and Henri Matisse, to William H. Johnson and Romare Bearden. In Adams’ art, the process can also be understood as an analog: “Everything that we are is based on a specific construction,” he once remarked.

Derrick Adams (b. 1970, Baltimore, MD) received his MFA from Columbia University and BFA from Pratt Institute. He is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program and was the recipient of Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, a Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award.

Adams has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions such as The Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (2021); SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, Savannah (2020–2021); Hudson River Museum, Yonkers (2020); Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (2020); The Gallery in Baltimore City Hall (2019); and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2018). The artist has mounted public installations commissioned through MTA Arts & Design at the Nostrand Avenue LIRR Station, Brooklyn (2020–ongoing); and RxART at NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem (2019–ongoing). His work has been featured in notable group exhibitions, including Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair, Kent State University Museum (2021–2022); Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (2020), now at the Seattle Art Museum (2021); Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati (2019), traveled to Washington State History Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Tacoma (2019–2020); and Performa, New York (2015, 2013, 2005). His art resides in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Birmingham Museum of Art, among many others. He has recently established an artist program and residency in his hometown of Baltimore called The Last Resort.

EDUCATION

2003

MFA, Visual Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY

1996

BFA, Art & Design Education, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021

Derrick Adams: LOOKS, Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, OH

Derrick Adams and Barbara Earl Thomas: Packaged Black, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA

Style Variations, Salon 94, New York, NY

The Last Resort, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL Derrick Adams: Sanctuary, The Momentary, Bentonville, AR

2020

Derrick Adams: Buoyant, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY. Travels to Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, FL

Patrick Kelley, The Journey, SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, Savannah, GA

Derrick Adams: Transformers, Luxembourg & Dayan, London, UK

Derrick Adams: Buoyant, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL

2019

The Ins and Outs: Figures in the Urban Landscape, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL

Where I’m From, The Gallery in Baltimore City Hall, Baltimore, MD

Derrick Adams: Interior Life, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY

New Icons, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY

2018

The Journey Continues, Ford Foundation Live Gallery, New York, NY

Derrick Adams: Transmission, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO

Derrick Adams: Sanctuary, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY

Derrick Adams: People Person, Anne de Villepoix, Paris, FR; Private Offices, New York, NY

2017

Derrick Adams: Black White & Brown, Primary Projects, Miami, FL

Figures in the Urban Landscape, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

Repose, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, CA

Tell Me Something Good, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL

Derrick Adams: Patrick Kelly, The Journey, Countee Cullen Library, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY Network, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California

Future People, Stony Island Arts Bank, Rebuild Foundation, Chicago, IL, Curated by Theaster Gates

2016

Float, Vigo Gallery, London, UK

Derrick Adams x Messages in the Street, Chicago, IL ON, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY

Culture Club, Project for Empty Space, Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ

Black and White and in Color, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, FR

Crossroad: A Social Sculpture, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE

2015

The Holdout (performance + installation), Aljira: A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ

2014

LIVE and IN COLOR, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY Derrick Adams, T Magazine Villa Necchi-Campiglio, Milan, IT

Borough, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL

2013

Aestheticized Reductions of Self-Representation, Hales Gallery, London, UK

In The Company Of Others, Louis B. James, New York, NY DISPLAY: Cloaked in the Proprieties of the Culture Game, 80WSE Gallery, New York, NY

Becoming One With Your Environment, Galerie Anne De Villepoix, Paris, FR

2012

Cameron Visiting Artist: Derrick Adams, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Middlebury, VT

Hillman U. - A Dream Deferred, A Dream Fulfilled, Proposition Gallery, New York, NY

The World According to Derrick, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA

Man As His Element, Colburn Gallery, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

Deconstruction Worker, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

2010

Welcome to Monument City, Collette Blanchard Gallery, New York, NY

2009

Introduction to Bizarro Wiz, (Installation + performance at Le Jardin Theatre, Deauville Beach Resort), NADA, Miami Beach, FL

2006

Sometimes I Just Don’t Feel Like Myself (installation + performance), Momenta Arts, Brooklyn, NY

2005

I’m Sorry, I’m Lost, Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY

I’m Smoke; You’re Mirror (installation + performance), Participant Inc., New York, NY

2004

Me and My Imaginary Friends (installation + performance), Triple Candie, New York, NY

2003

The Big Getaway, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

PERFORMANCES

2020

Sounds Lasting and Leaving (Performance at Opening), Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY

2019

Better Nights Installation, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL

2017

The Builders, 1947, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

2016

Finding Derrick 6 to 8, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

2015

Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal/SIDESHOW, Performa ‘15, New York, NY

The Entertainer: Static | Distortion | Interference, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL

2014

The Entertainer: Static | Distortion | Interference, Logan Center, Chicago, IL

2013

Once Upon a Time (Commissioned by The Calder Foundation), Performa ’13, Salon 94, New York, NY Artist Experiment: The Institution of Me, Performa ‘13, Performa Hub, New York, NY

2012

The Channel, BAM Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY

Communicating with Shadows, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY The Entertainer, MoMA PS1, New York, NY Derrick Adams – Man as His Element, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

2010

Feed Them With A Long Spoon, Third Streaming, New York, NY

Go Stand Next to the Mountain, The Kitchen, New York, NY

2005

Anew, PERFORMA, Participant Inc., New York, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021

The Eyes Have It, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY and I will wear you in my heart of heart, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY

2020

Painting is painting’s favorite food, South Etna, Montauk, NY

TEXTURES: the history and art of Black hair, Kent State University Museum, Kent, OH

Drawing 2020, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY

Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

Collectouples, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY Sounds Lasting and Leaving, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY

2019

The Extreme Present, presented by Larry Gagosian, Moore Building, Miami Design District, Miami Beach, FL Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., Smithsonian Institution, Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, WA; National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH

Figuring the Floral, Wave Hill, New York, NY

Painting Is Its Own Country, curated by Dexter Wimberly, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC

Packaged Black: Barbara Earl Thomas and Derrick Adams, a collaboration, Henry Art Gallery at University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Made at the New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, New York, NY

2018

American Family: Derrick Adams and Deana Lawson, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, NY

Cry of Victory and Short Walks to Freedom, Projects+Gallery, St Louis, MO

Punch, curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY

Postcard from New York- Part II, Anna Marra Contemporanea, Rome, IT

Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK

Go Figure, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH

2017

Prospect.4, Prospect New Orleans, New Orleans, LA Maker, Maker, Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY

Unobstructed Views, Hawkins Ferry House in partnership with Library Street Collective and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI

Lines of Influence, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA Third Space /Shifting Conversations about Contemporary Art, curated by Wassan Al-Khudhair, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL

2016

Baltimore Rising, The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

FLAT SCREEN, SPLIT SCREEN, SMOKE SCREEN, Barbara Walters Gallery, Heimbold Arts Center, Sarah Lawrence College, New York, NY

40 Years, Part 1, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL Experiments in Print: Derrick Adams, Matthew Day Jackson, Dread Scott & Kate Shepherd, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA

Black Pulp, Yale School of Art, 32 Edgewood Gallery, New Haven, CT

Tete-a-Tete, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY

2015 Us Is Them, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH Young, Gifted and Black, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

All Killer No Filler, Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, NY

Geometries of Difference: New Approaches to Ornament and Abstraction, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY

2014

Retreat, Richard Gray Gallery and Valerie Carberry Gallery, Chicago, IL Szalon, Logan Center, Chicago, IL RELEVANCE: Perspectives of the African American Experience, Quintenz Gallery, Aspen, CO

Black Eye, Concept NV, New York, NY

Outside the Lines: Black in the Abstract, Part II: Hard Edges/Soft Curves, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX

2013

The Shadows Took Shape, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

Reading List: Artists’ Selections from the MoMA Library Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY tête-à-tête, QF Gallery, East Hampton, NY

Reloading the Canon: African Traditions in Contemporary Art, James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD

2012

Radical Presence; Black Performance In Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX. Traveled to The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Bigger Than Shadows, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY Friends With Benefits, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY

The Road Ahead, Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles, CA Summer Group Show, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, FR Pratt Alumni Painters, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY

Sonando en Color, Havana Biennial, Centro Experimental De Los Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba

Next Generation: Selections by Artists in the 30 Americans Collection, Contemporary Wing, Washington, DC

tête-à-tête, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL. Traveled to Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY

Sunday Sessions, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY Campaign, C24 Gallery, New York, NY

2011

The Bearden Project, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

The February Show, Ogilvy & Mather, New York, NY

2010

Bite: Street Inspired Art + Fashion, Third Streaming, New York, NY

Lush Life: Chapter One: Whistle, Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY

50 Artists Photograph the Future, Higher Pictures, New York, NY

Dissecting Intersections: Performative Responses, Bowery Poetry Club, New York, NY

Precarity and The Butter Tower, CTRL GALLERY, Houston, TX

NeoIntegrity Comics Edition, Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, New York, NY

2009

Revelatory Tension, BRIC Arts, Brooklyn, NY Harlem Postcards, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY

2008

Untitled (On Paper), Moti Hasson Gallery, New York, NY Bedtime Stories, Redhouse Arts Center, Syracuse, NY

1968: Then and Now, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY

Casa de Carton, Ingalls & Associates, Miami, FL

2007

Neo Integrity, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY

Dream of Today, Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

Taking Possession, Fine Arts Building, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AK

Reasons to Riot, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN

2006

Invade My Dreams, Taxter & Spengemann, New York, NY The Pulse of New Brooklyn, MoCADA | Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, Brooklyn, NY

2005

If You’re Feeling Sinister, Alona Kagan Gallery, New York, NY

Greater New York 2005, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY Jack Tilton Inaugural Exhibition, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

2004

Art Downtown: Connecting Collections, Wall Street Rising / Deutsche Bank, New York, NY

Me, Myself & I, Florida Atlantic University Gallery, Boca Raton, FL

Notorious Impropriety, Sampson Projects, Boston, MA Open House: Working in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

2003

24/7: Wilno – Nueva York (Visa Para), Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania Confrontation or Commentary, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY

Summer Jam, Roebling Hall – Satellite, New York, NY You, Lisa Kirk Projects, New York, NY

Adams, Cerrillo, Perkins, Massimo Audiello, New York, NY Veni Vidi Video, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY Urbanites: New York, London, Tokyo, Centenary Gallery, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK

2002

Hotel/Motel, Triple Candie, New York, NY

2001

Striking Blows, Manhattan Borough President’s Office, New York, NY

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

2019

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Arts & Design

LIRR Nostrand Avenue Station, Brooklyn NY

2018

Fashion Outlets of Chicago, Rosemont IL

Fashion Show (outdoor mural) and Fashion Accessories (2019) (lighting installation)

2017

Mural Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia PA Your Own Channel

RESIDENCIES & AWARDS

2019

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva, FL

2016

Joyce Alexander Wein Prize, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY 2014

S.J. Weiler Fund, New York, NY

2012

The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Englewood, FL

2011

The William H. Johnson Prize (Finalist), Los Angeles, CA The Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL

2009

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY

2003

Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, New York, NY (f/k/a: Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation)

2002

Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

2001-04

Agnes Martin Fellowship Fund, New York, NY

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Agnes Gund Collection, New York NY

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL Estee Lauder Collection, New York, NY FLAG Art Foundation, New York

Ford Foundation, New York, NY

JP Morgan Chase, New York, NY

Longlati Foundation, Shanghai, CN

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH

Progressive Insurance, Mayfield, OH

US Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY