Derrick Adams’ artwork is oftentimes layered, adding a tactile quality to them. Spanning across paintings, collages, sculptures, performances, videos, and sound installations, his work is a hybrid not only of images and materials but also of different types of sensory experiences.
It’s his multidisciplinary practice that engages the ways in which individuals’ ideals, aspirations, and personae become attached to specific objects, colors, textures, symbols, and ideologies. As such, his work has a flexibility to it. “As the work becomes more stable, I move on to something else,” Adams told Interview Magazine. “I want to be immersed in what I’m doing, and when you’re unfamiliar with it, you become more present.”
Born in Baltimore, and based in Brooklyn, New York his work asks questions about African American identity – how African American experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. “I’ll always admire black American artists before me who maintained a steady practice, even when no one was giving them the coverage they deserved,” he says.
