I'm Brian Adams, occasional artist. No, my work is not "characterized by the use of historic forms, rich decorative detail, and a tendency toward monumental conception in architecture." "Beau" was my childhood nickname. Clever, eh?
I worked as a newspaper reporter and technical editor for most of my professional career. As a child I drew cartoons and created comic books featuring friends and family members. Since then I’ve dabbled in many different art forms and have been fortunate to have my pieces appear in several exhibitions.
You can contact me at brian11adams@yahoo.com.
Here's a list of where my stuff has been exhibited:
2024: “Library Bathroom” shown at the Take A Look, It’s In A Book Group Art Show at the Memento Mori Gallery & Tattoo, Lakewood, CO 80214 (May 3-25).
2023: “Spoke ‘n Words” sculpture shown at Sculpture Now: Art 2 the 3rd Dimension, Art League Rhode Island Gallery, Pawtucket, RI (December 2, 2023-January 3, 2024). “Spoke ‘n’ Words” is an unusual book that recaptures childhood memories of biking the neighborhood with baseball cards thwacking the spokes, and combines it with journal entries I made while biking across the United States as an adult. It uses an old rusted bicycle wheel, map fragments, and clothespins.
2023: “Rack and Ruin” shown at the Mystery, Magic and the Macabre Juried Exhibition at the Deines Cultural Center in Russell, KA (Oct. 22-Nov. 22). “Rack and Ruin” depicts Dominican friar Tomás de Torquemada, first Grand Inquisitor in Spain, and Girolamo Savonarola, host of numerous bonfires of the vanities in Italy, along with perhaps the effects of their policies and practices. Mixed media (pastel, acrylic, plastic, wood, string).
2021: “Paper or Plastic, Sr. Picasso?” shown at Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, Master Copies/Interpretations 2021, Loveladies, NJ (July 17 to August 15), “Paper or Plastic, Sr. Picasso?” re-imagines (or should I say “recycles”?) his “Three Musicians” work using paper and plastic from grocery bags and sacks, among other pre-owned sources.
2021: “Barbiturate Barbie and the Bottomless Bottle” shown at Pop Culture and Trashy, ShockBoxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA (November 6-27). “Barbiturate Barbie and the Bottomless Bottle” is the result of having too much fun at an Altered Barbie Show and later that year having your significant other get you a doll for Christmas as an artistic challenge. The tagline on the piece is “A Little Black Dress can get a girl into a lot of places, but it can’t always get her out.” Barbie artifacts and harmless pills.
2020: “Spoke ‘n Words” sculpture in the Art at the Center Exhibition, Overland Park, KS (April 2020; chosen but not shown because the venue was closed during the pandemic.)
2020: “Unorthodox Russian Churches” shown at January Group Art Show at the Jones Art Gallery in Kansas City, MO (Jan. 2-30). “Unorthodox Russian Churches” is a collage of assorted spires and domes of Russian religious edifices. Paper and mixed-media crosses.
2019: “Russian Gallery 2” shown at Opposites show at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA (June 12-July 12, 2019). “Russian Gallery” is a series of wooden painted panels containing framed and colored photos of Russian people primarily from the 19th century. It captures the breadth of ethnic and demographic strata from that country—from tsars to the poverty-stricken. The piece contains six panels that can be portrayed as two triptychs (a central piece flanked by two wings) or individually.
2019: “Amedica” 2D mixed media piece in We the People at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA from March 28 to June 9. “Amedica” mimics the U.S. flag and comments on the prevalence of medical-related ads in U.S. magazines that invite you to “Ask your doctor about…”. Clippings from those ads are preserved (and their clarity obscured) by strips of plastic. They serve as the white stripes of the flag, and recycled medicine bottle caps substitute for the stars.
2019: “The Garden of Kitschly Delights” 3D mixed media piece in Menagerie—Wild and Wonderful in Washington, North Carolina, February 8 and 9, 2019, during 23rd Annual East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival. Also exhibited in the Menagerie show at the Contemporary Art Exchange in Washington, NC from February 13 to April 15. “The Garden of Kitschly Delights” collects all the gewgaws, tchotchkes, and silly objects that people give you or you acquire over the years and populates a silly meadow with them. After Bosch.
2019: “Half Life” self-portrait 2D mixed media piece in the Galex 53 Juried Exhibition, March 8-April 6, 2019, Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, IL. “Half Life” is a self-portrait from near Ground Zero at the Trinity Atomic Bomb site, New Mexico. Mixed media (spray paint, paint marker). Lines and stipple in subtle colors on metallic silver canvas.
2018: “Spoke ‘n Words” sculpture in the 23rd Arts in Harmony 2018 Annual International Show – The North Show, New Brighton, MN (Feb. 15-March 16, 2018).
2017: “Amedica” 2D mixed media piece in 62nd Open International Exhibition titled “Bold Expressions,” Sacramento Fine Arts Center, 5330-B Gibbons Drive, Carmichael, CA (October 3-29, 2017)
2017: Three works in Kingston Arts Festival, Kingston, WA (July 28-30, 2017):
Spoke ‘n Words (sculpture)
Paper or Plastic, Sr. Picasso? (mixed media)
What’s It Going to Be Then, Eh? (mixed media). “What’s It Going to Be Then, Eh?” is a stylized representation of Anthony Burgess, the author of the provocative novel A Clockwork Orange, on an appropriately colored background. Acrylic and ink.
2016: Merit Award Winner for “Spoke ‘n Words” sculpture in The Art of the Book exhibition, June-July, Sebastopol Art Center, Sebastopol, CA. Two photos of it can be seen among others included in the June 17, 2016 posting of the Sebastopol Art Center’s Facebook page. It’s the bicycle wheel with the cards attached by clothespins.
2013: Three works in the 11thAnnual San Francisco Altered Barbie Exhibition 2013, Shotwell 50 Studio, San Francisco, CA:
Barbiturate Barbie and the Bottomless Bottle (mixed media)
B’Arby (mixed media). “B’Arby” is what happens when your significant other gets you yet another doll for Christmas after you’ve proved that you can rise to an artistic challenge. Barbie, Arby artifacts, and mall food court tray.
Eyes (mixed media). “Eyes”: Green? Blue? Green-blue? Blue-green? In between? Paper, marbles..
2012: “Barbiturate Barbie and the Bottomless Bottle” in the 10thAnnual San Francisco Altered Barbie Exhibition 2012, Shotwell 50 Studio, San Francisco, CA
2011: “Spoke ‘n Words” sculpture in the Santa Clara Biennial Indoor Sculpture Exhibition, April, Santa Clara City Hall, Santa Clara, CA