Phoebe Adams is a painter and sculptor who exhibited regularly in New York for a decade (1985–95). Three years ago, I wrote a short essay, “Response to Place: Color,” on her paintings and Teresa Booth Brown’s collages for a brochure published by the Ucross Foundation accompanying an exhibition at the Ucross Art Gallery in Wyoming (February 15–May 17, 2019). Currently, she divides her time between New Mexico and Maine, two very different landscapes and climates, both of which inform her work. The 10 paintings, measuring 30 by 40 inches, in her exhibition Phoebe Adams: Nomad Walking at David Richard Gallery (October 2–November 11, 2022) are done in acrylic and acrylic gouache on paper, linen, and wood panels. The paper, linen, and canvas are mounted on unframed panels that extend out from the walls and seem to be floating in air.

Describing Adams as “an avid walker in Maine, New Mexico, and Iceland” by Debra Barlow in her catalogue essay, the artist’s paintings are inspired by her recollections of walks she’s taken and material she’s read on the natural sciences. The patterns and clusters of abstract lines evoke movement and the unseen forces animating the natural world. Attuned to what she calls “small details”(which I take to mean things apt to go unnoticed), the imagery hovers between abstract marks and recognizable natural forms, such as tree trunks, rocks, and running water. Her use of color sits between the realistic and unreal, contributing a hallucinatory effect to many of the works.

Η συνέχεια εδώ.