The Heart Vs. The Mind in a Fight to the Finish
May 24th - June 25th 2008
Personal Time, 2008, stencil enamel on panel, 28 x 38 inches
Internationally renowned stencil artist Adam5100 returns to Oakland with his most ambitious body of artwork yet. Combining an almost inhuman dexterity with the X-acto blade and the spray can, Adam continually surprises his audience with the places he has taken artwork made from the traditional printmaking technique of stenciling. Drawing imagery from the traditions of modern American photography as well as the freedom of contemporary figurative painting, each piece is the result of hundreds of hours of labor and tens of thousands of hours of experience. Adam’Äôs artwork is meticulous, imaginative, and innovative.
For ’ÄúThe Heart Vs. The Mind in a Fight to the Finish’Äù, Adam5100 has created artwork that again pushes the limits of the medium of hand-cut stencil artwork. The show features photorealistic and figurative stencil paintings (sometimes using up to 9 different hand-cut color separations), shadow installations, sculptures, prints, and a 48 square-foot outdoor mural. His work takes on a modernist approach, using traditional yet revisited and refined techniques that are truly his own. Adam’Äôs unique voice amid the final result is purely contemporary, yet his reverence for history in both technique and subject matter is palpably universal.
Adam5100 was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He carries a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) with Distinction and is a recipient of the prestigious Yozo Hamaguchi award in printmaking. He has exhibited worldwide and has recently worked with William Wiley for a work that was commissioned by the San Jose Art Museum and is scheduled to exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in DC.
artist's website: www.adam5100.com