And so it goes... is an exhibition featuring recent works by Carris Adams. Through a series of site-specific graphite wall drawings and large-scale painted collages, the two bodies of work point to disappearing pasts, precarious presents, and unknown futures. The wall drawings of steel billboard frame-like structures are minimal in color and function as part space activation and part backdrop for the paintings. The drawings invite viewers to look upon the ghostly structure and imagine what could have been there before, whether informing passersby of what to buy, who to believe in, what to listen to or who to deny. While the wall drawings are minimal, the paintings are maximal; overloaded in color, texture, mark-making, and fragmented language. Through additive and subtractive processes that enhance or disrupt the legibility, the works become conceptually multi-layered. Accented with tape, intentionally messy, and somewhat confusing, the paintings work in opposition to the wall. Together, the paintings and drawings take on double or triple meanings as they seek to guide viewers to recall a place, image, or space through abstraction.
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).
