Adam Simon “From This Position”
Studio 10
This event has ended.
Studio10 presents From This Position, a solo show of new paintings by Adam Simon.
“In appropriating corporate logos and then hacking or “detourning” them by making them into abstract paintings, Simon practically drains them of their representational power. He simultaneously re-positions the idealism of pure abstraction within a contemporary context of commodity discourse.
This effectively cancels out both the blind, compulsive desire that the logos tend to inculcate, and a weak notion of abstract painting as freedom from representational thinking, so that one virtual emancipation narrative cancels out another.
What we are left with is a kind of impure abstraction that allows for both a more objective reading of “the landscaped backdrop of our daily lives” (to use Tom Micchelli’s analogy) and, simultaneously a reconsideration of the historical uses of abstract painting as an aesthetic of political possibility.
The simultaneity of this situation keeps judgment suspended and returns to the intention of abstract painting the idea of radical doubt — a useful lever for understanding and resisting the polarized socio-political situation that we increasingly find ourselves in.”
- Tom McGlynn (from an upcoming essay on contemporary abstraction)
A conversation between Tom McGlynn and Adam Simon will take place at Studio 10 on Friday, March 22, between 7 and 9 pm.
Media
Schedule
from March 15, 2019 to April 14, 2019
Opening Reception on 2019-03-15 from 19:00 to 21:00