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When first encountering Phillip Adams’s work, the viewer immediately notices how beautifully the landscapes are rendered. With each pebble and each wave perfectly placed and drawn, his layered mark-making creates craggy mountains and rough seas that are faithful to nature. Were these images simply representations of the outdoors, they would be lovely drawings, hinting at the real places on which Adams bases his work, but Adams goes beyond depictions of beautiful landscapes.
Phillip Adams meticulously depicts scenes of nature disrupted by humankind’s presence. The teeter totter, the chair, and the plastic pink flamingos leave the viewer questioning how these objects came to inhabit otherwise pristine environments. Adams has written that he “explores ideas related to nature and our impulses to control, reshape, and even destroy the landscapes and environments [we steward]. Embedded in the work is a paradox of the desire to leave our mark while simultaneously seeking out the pristine, remote, and idyllic. With overtures to the climate crisis humanity faces, this work straddles the weight of rapidly changing environments with playful moments of seeming whimsy.” Yet, the playground equipment and other objects that may at first glance bring a lightness to the imagery – the “seeming whimsy” mentioned in Adams’s statement – are more disturbing than fanciful.
In his newest work, The Open Road, Slow Ride, and Free Throw, Adams speaks directly to the dangers of climate change. With water flooding roadways and rising to nearly the tops of traffic signs and with pool toys floating in rough seas, Adams’s 2023 work unambiguously reflects the more drastic environmental threats that continue to increase daily. Indeed, the yield sign in Slow Ride could not send a clearer message.
Adams writes, “The use of charcoal and graphite [in my work] links the materiality of carbon to the imagery, further connecting my work in an elemental and fragile way… The work is created meticulously and carefully by building layers of small mark-making that reverberate the care, anxiety, and enormity I feel about the subject matter.”
In Leave No Trace, I explore ideas related to nature and our impulses to control, reshape, and even destroy the landscapes and environments we play stewards of. Embedded in the work is a paradox of the desire to leave our mark while simultaneously seeking out the pristine, remote, and idyllic. With overtures to the climate crisis humanity faces, this work straddles the weight of rapidly changing environments with playful moments of seeming whimsy. While shrouded in a fragile balance between play and responsibility, these works are intended to inspire the complexity of emotions facing our way forward, as playful elements float, fly, or inhabit these landscapes giving rise to feelings as varying as loss to wonder.
This work is inspired in part by early theories of the Sublime. As the romantic grandeur of these landscapes and atmospheres evoke a sense of beauty and terror, they are recontextualized into moments of levity, playgrounds, or amusement parks. I work from photographs I take while personally exploring some of these vistas, whether it be in the mountains hiking and climbing or kayaking rivers and lakes. I also collect source material that ranges from found images and postcards to photographs dating back to the late 1800s. I then construct compositions that are based on real places. The work in Leave No Trace expands this body of work, which has primarily been focused on mountainous landscapes, by including compositions that explore themes around water and air.
The materials that I use are primarily charcoal, graphite, and acrylic on wood panels. The use of charcoal and graphite links the materiality of carbon to the imagery, further connecting my work in an elemental and fragile way, while the plasticity of acrylic becomes a distinct voice. The work is created meticulously and carefully by building layers of small mark-making that reverberate the care, anxiety, and enormity I feel about the subject matter.
Phillip Adams is a visual artist and muralist based out of Philadelphia, PA. For over 25 years, his studio work has been exhibited at a range of venues including Woodmere Museum (Philadelphia, PA), Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA), Arlington Arts Center (Arlington, VA), Arcadia University (Philadelphia, PA), Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA), West Chester University (West Chester, PA), and Moore College of Art (Philadelphia, PA). His most recent show opened in October, 2022 at Schmidt Dean Gallery in Cherry Hill, NJ. He was a 2020-21 fellow with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists (Philadelphia, PA), and his work is in private collections spanning New York, Arkansas, California to Tokyo. He has been featured or reviewed in The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, La Presse (Montréal), and Dolce Vita Magazine (Canada) among other publications.
Adams’ public art practice has spanned over 20 years, focusing on a range of artist driven projects to community based art processes. His murals are featured nationally and internationally including Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Memphis, Salt Lake City, and Montréal. He has worked with clients including Starbucks, Rag and Bone, Domain Companies, and U.S. Federal Government, and has collaborated with arts organizations including Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, ArtWorks (Cincinnati), and MU (Montréal).
Adams received a BFA from the University of Georgia and an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania.
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