BY NIGHT WITH TORCH AND SPEAR
Dutton, New York, NY
March 2 – 31, 2016
BY NIGHT WITH TORCH AND SPEAR
EXHIBITION March 2-31, 2016
OPENING Wednesday, March 2, 6-8pm
Dutton presents new paintings by Samuel T Adams in a show entitled BY NIGHT WITH TORCH AND SPEAR. A homage to Joseph Cornell's 1942 film of the same title - an immersive collage of found material, industrial procedures and tribal rituals - imagery viewed flipped upside-down and backwards, negative reversal filters in tow - acutely and poetically embodies the artist's practice and work - a highly charged nocturnal mix of habitual mechanical inclinations.
BY NIGHT WITH TORCH AND SPEAR is a hunt of unwavering focus. Using handmade wood structures on the verso of each multi-panelled work as a matrix, and essentially exposing the reversal of a painting, Adams’ works are composed of iconic sculptural assemblages that combine tropes and beams with arcs and waves, collections of objects resembling spears, clovers, arrows, and primitive stone tools, and imagery that morphs into warning signs, pathways or passages - implied by titles such as Beacon. The works introduce an expanded lexicon from previous works with a varietal of curvilinear forms, as well as a breakthrough into hot electric color achieved by numerous permeations of pigments - a rich palette that glows in an imagined darkness.
The inner workings and their myriad of labor-laden processes dictate the eventual reveal, from sculpture reversed into painting via a form of primitive printmaking. The mysterious yet certainly destructive process - evidenced by holes and tears in the canvas - further underscores the cryptic imagery and their derivations.
Samuel T Adams received his MFA from School of Visual Arts in New York in 2009. His site-specific solo show at Dutton, New York in 2015 Agapē Agape received outstanding critical attention. Adams’ work is currently in Four Sided Triangle at Spring/Break and has been included in numerous group exhibitions including D&F Gallery, New York; Left Field, San Luis Obispo; Fitzroy Gallery, New York; ZieherSmith, New York; Regina Rex, New York; and Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. Recent press includes pieces in PAPER Magazine, Hyperallergic, Artinfo, and The L Magazine. Adams lives and works in Brooklyn.
DUTTON
124 Forsyth Street
New York, NY 10002
917 214 1838
Wed–Sun, 12–6pm, and by appt
