John Adelman: Drawings

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Drawings, an exhibition of new works on paper by John Adelman.  An opening reception for the artist will be held on Friday, January 5, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The exhibition continues through Saturday, February 10, 2007.

Following traditions of rule-based art, the drawings of John Adelman contain a preordained conceptual methodology. Rules consisting of a single resource, a constant, and a variable provide a focused exploration of a singular mindset directing the work to its maximal conclusion. The single resource is a collection of specific quantities, the constant is a set of rules, which define order and structure, and the variable is the undefined, random component. This complexity coupled with pictorial simplicity induces each distinct work with its own truth.

When asked about his recent work Adelman states, “I desire to see, not foresee, the outcome of the equation - the equation is allowed to seek its own full resolution, implemented at the beginning and unaltered throughout the duration of a work.”

These fifteen new works are drawn with black, blue, and green gel ink pens – literally hundreds of them – and vary in scale from very small to large. The artist has been inspired by numerous and disparate things with ‘content’ in mind – such as the contents of his studio, details about a construction project, parts of a radio scanner, broken fluorescent lights, etc. At close range the individually drawn elements are readily accessible while at greater distance, the work’s readability is as an integrated whole.

In 1992 Adelman received a B.F.A. in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. In 2006 he received a M.F.A. in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas in Denton. Since 1999 Adelman has been included in several noteworthy juried exhibitions such as; Works on Paper at Mills Pond House Gallery in St. James, New York in 2006, (Juror: Colta Ives, Curator Department of Prints/Drawing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art); Assistance League of Houston, Celebrates Texas Art 2006 at Williams Tower in Houston, Texas, (Juror: Jeffrey Grove, Wieland Family Curator of Contemporary Modern Art, Atlanta, Georgia); New Directions 2005 at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, New York (Juror: Steven Evans, Assistant Director DIA Art Foundation, Beacon, New York); Amarillo Biennial: 600 Drawing at the Amarillo Museum of Art in Amarillo, Texas (Juror: James Elaine, Curator UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California); 22nd Annual Art in the Metroplex at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas (Juror: Larry Rinder, Curator of Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum of American Art).