My first official assignment as a writer sent me to Downtown, Los Angeles at the Santa Fe Artist Colony to interview Lisa Adams. It was the winter of 2008, nearly five years exactly that I met Lisa for the first time. She had just applied spray paint to a large work titled We Destroyed the Things We Loved for a solo exhibition that would open in the New Year of 2009. The initial defilement of a painting that she had nurtured over a course of months bewildered her. But soon the spray paint became a part of her visual vernacular and it was no longer a defacement of the work but a vital addition to the elements at play within the environment of the canvas. Looking to nature, mainly the urban neighborhood that surrounds the Colony, is a mosaic of past and present where wildlife thrives despite the odds. Adams finds that the beauty in the natural world is in a state of discord, but that tension amounts to a poetic moment with a palpable energy felt in her work. This week CB1 Gallery is displaying Adams’ work in a booth at The Miami Project and it seemed an appropriate opportunity to examine the evolution of the artist thus far.
California: Location Unknown
A moment where the artist was working on the two largest works of her career and the subject of tree carvings became a source of fascination.
In Blank We Trust: Paradise Notwithstanding
A photo diary of the urban and rural environments throughout Los Angeles where the artist defines her idea of “paradise.”
The Day the Shade Came Down
After nearly losing sight in one eye and a lengthy recovery, the experience opened a new window into the artist’s world.
The Miami Project
The present moment.
Courtesy of the artist and CB1 Gallery
Courtesy of the artist and CB1 Gallery
Featured Image: Lisa Adams, Drowning Out All Birdsong, oil on canvas over panel, 65” x 84”, 2013 Courtesy of the artist and CB1 Gallery
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