“Carris Adams toys with the mutability of language itself, deploying fonts and phrases in layers of idiosyncratic amalgamations. Words and phrases meld and dissolve into each other, but they never entirely cancel each other out. Adams paints palimpsests, working over still-legible texts to establish contradictions and dualities in tension. To examine her work is to be a detective and a semiotician, or even an archaeologist.” –Nicole Mauser, Breakout Artists 2017, New City
Carris Adams is an artist currently based in Houston, Texas. Her work explores the signs/signifiers that mark our landscapes. Through the materiality of painting, drawing, and printmaking Adams attempts to embody the sense, shape and experience of these markers. Her work describes the appearance of subjects found during her day-to-day travels, while also reflecting the various social, cultural, political and economic circumstances under which we labor. Adams received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin (2013) and her MFA from the University of Chicago (2015). Adams's work has been exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem ( New York, NY) , The Logan Center Exhibitions at The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL), Produce Model Gallery (Chicago, IL) Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery (Chicago,IL) and The Courtyard Gallery at The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX).
