ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are primarily oil on paper and/or watercolor on paper that combine drawing and painting. These paintings of figures are linked through sight, intention, and proximity and look at human bodies as archives, with a focus on body language as a signifier of power, desire, longing and absence. This body of work draws from both the body and the environment interweaving figural representations with spatial disruptions and/or dislocations. I work from photos of family and friends, some of the recent work addresses the loss of intimacy and touch during the past two years. My interests lie in how we navigate and interpret memory, materials and space and how this can define the body with an emphasis on the representation of the body as a site of subtle slippage, an intended slippage between observation and illusion. I have always been interested in beginning my paintings and drawings from observation, looking at skin, light, shadow, muscles, fat, body position and understanding how careful observation can create desire but also removal. My paintings present an interrelated collection of figural and material gestures and spaces whose meaning is determined by their relationship to each other.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I received a B.F.A from the San Francisco Art Institute, an M.A. from San Francisco State University, and an M.F.A. in Painting from The Ohio State University. I was awarded a residency at Jentel for August, 2022. In 2019 I was Artist in Residence at ChaNorth, NY, and the Vermont Studio Center. In 2017, I was awarded a residency at MASSMoCA. In May 2009, I was an artist in residence at 18th Street Art Center, CA. In 2003, I was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. I have participated in numerous national and regional exhibitions which includes, The Indivisible Spectrum, The Painting Center, NY, Collar Works, NY, And Elsewhere, An exhibition of five west coast artists, Charles Long Projects, CA., One in a Year, The Painting Center and the Painting Center Flat files, 23 International, Woman Made Gallery, ChaShaMa, NY, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, CT. A solo exhibition, Fixed, Fluid and Framed at The Little Gallery of San Bernardino. Concrete and Adrift at the Alexandria Museum of Art, LA, Currents exhibition at AIR Gallery, NY, Field Projects, NY, and Headlands Center for the Arts.
© Robin Adsit