Romanticizing What It Means to Be a Painter: with Lindsay Adams

With a new acquisition for the public collection at Northwestern University and an exhibition at James Cohan Gallery in Tribeca, Lindsay Adams is in the budding stages of her career as a new society scholar at the Art Institute of Chicago where she is currently pursuing her MFA. As an artist, Adams is constantly defining her sense of liberation and engaging in dialogue in that way where she is able to use the canvas as a way to negotiate, move and explore with paint.

Adams: It’s so interesting because I’ve been seeing what has been so consistent the last 15-20 years, what is new and what has evolved. Now I have a critical and conceptual component naturally, especially in my academics. I have a very structured painting curriculum, back from when I started at 14 years old. Now, as I engage in more difficult concepts like the nuances and complexities of the black experience, and more abstract view of sociology and politics, my work in many ways has begun to mimic visually how I am facilitating dual-positioning where I am making a very clear formal position and political stance. However at the same time, I am clearly a painter in the most romantic way in terms of my love for painting, and in my love for pursuing the materials.

What was your first acquisition experience like?

Adams: The first one, the Baltimore museum, I felt so full because not only was this an institution that was close to my home but it’s a very important institution and in that moment I was having this surreal feeling that I felt things were happening in my career that felt a little out of order. I felt grounded in the fact that it was a testament to my work and my consistency, and despite the terms of my roundabout path being fully engaged in this space, I had this AHA moment in the realm of my work and that I was on the fight path. It was a reinforcement that I was doing something right.

With the first sale of any artwork being at her first show just a few years ago, Lindsay’s mother always kept sketch books and paintings from her childhood, and In 2007, her professor put one of her still life’s in an art competition where she rose as a finalist with someone offering to buy the piece — it was the first time she realized, that being an artist maybe was the right path to traverse. “Because being into painting and being able to talk about painting all day, but also take the path of a more social political stance, I completely found my zone in finding my weaving point of social interests.”

Being so into social historical movements and art history, what inspires you to keep creating?

Adams: I think stylistically, I am a big fan of abstract expressionism and impressionism, and I think that’s where the postmodern abstract influences me when I paint. I’m also always engaged in conceptual art practices in looking to see how the absence of limited material, how art is art, engaging in different subjects — The Washington Color School and the New York School; one critic said to me recently, and it was such a moment of joy, a lot of artists felt like there was nothing left of abstract expressionism, but when I look at your work I see there is more left to be done. So I’m pushing the materials and doing what I need to do.

And where do you currently feel the state of your art is at?

Adams: I’m very interested in moving and exploring the paint because there is a level of freedom, I’ve been thinking a lot of about liberation and engaging in dialogue in that way and using the canvas as a way to negotiate. I’ve been playing a lot fo scale lately and want to keep the conversation in flow — I think it demands scale. I want to keep pushing myself into other mediums. I want to keep seeing how I unfold, my core value is to never put down the paint. My work is so much more open now, before there was a level of structure I’ve always had with my practice, now I just feel so free. I just feel like everything is so available to me and want to keep pushing that boundary. I feel very present and grounded in this life experience, even though it often feels like the unknown. I want to remain in this space of forever learning. I’m just happy to be amongst so many scholars and makers where I’m currently at and need to continue moving forward.