The First Monograph to Survey Derrick Adams' Career Comes Ahead of a Major Exhibition

"Whether portraying families at play, people walking along urban streets, or portraits of individuals, Derrick Adams celebrates Black identity and experience. His collage-like compositions evoke West African masks, reliquary figures, and other carved sculptures, highlighting contemporary, everyday scenes and leisure activities of Black Americans. A new monograph from Monicelli surveys more than two decades of Adams' geometric paintings, made in his signature multihued, faceted style. Derrick Adams is the first monograph to survey the artist's entire career, tracing his stylistic evolution and the themes that recur throughout his paintings."

"Organized into three sections-Channeling, Signaling, and Mirroring-the book highlights the artist's explorations of representation, identity, and the media. We also trace the evolution of his visual language, which he describes as "seriocomic imagery," along with his "desire to see Black American experiences mirrored in art, in part rectifying the dearth of such imagery in art history," the publisher says. "At its core, Adams's project is a reinvigoration of the Black figure in art, an intention seen throughout the works in the book.""

"The release of Derrick Adams sets the stage for a mid-career survey of the artist's work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Titled View Finder, the show opens on April 16 and will present 150 works. Derrick Adams is slated for release on October 22. Pre-order your copy from the Colossal Shop, and explore more on Adams' website and Instagram. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing."

Derrick Adams creates geometric, multihued, faceted paintings that celebrate Black identity, everyday scenes, and leisure activities of Black Americans. The works use collage-like compositions that evoke West African masks, reliquary figures, and carved sculptures. More than two decades of Adams' geometric paintings trace his stylistic evolution and recurring themes. Work clusters titled Channeling, Signaling, and Mirroring highlight explorations of representation, identity, and media. Adams describes his visual language as "seriocomic imagery" and expresses a desire to see Black American experiences mirrored in art. The project centers a reinvigoration of the Black figure in contemporary art.

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