Dennis Adams (born 1948) is an American artist. He has made urban interventions and museum installations that reveal historical and political undercurrents in

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

public space A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads, pavements, public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to the public, su ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

About

Adams was born in

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. Through his urban interventions and museum installations, Adams has focused on the conception of photography as a medium that has crucially transformed the representation of history as a primary means for the open reconstruction of imagery resonating within the realm of social context. His first decade of activity is best documented in the

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

entitled ''Dennis Adams: The Architecture of Amnesia'' (1989). Beginning in 1998, Adams began to explore the medium of video and social engagement with projects such as ''OUTTAKE'' (1999), ''Makedown'' (2004), Spill (2009) and most recently ''Malraux's Shoes'' (2012).
".

Kent Fine Art Kent Fine Art is an Contemporary art gallery, art gallery in New York City founded in 1985 by Douglas Walla. About Founded in 1985, Kent Fine Art opened at the corner of Madison & 57th Street in the Fuller Building, New York. Since 57th Street, ...

Work

Adams is a visual artist that has produced inversions of street architecture, urban interventions, performance videos, and works of art that form a discourse with historical and

sociopolitical Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how p ...

undercurrents in photography, cinema, public space and architecture. Since 1980, he has realized over fifty urban projects in cities worldwide from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. His work has been the subject of over seventy-five solo exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout North America and Europe including: The

Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

; MHKA, Antwerp; The Kitchen, New York; De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam; The Barcelona Pavilion, Fundacio Mies Van Der Rohe, Barcelona; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Portikus, Frankfurt; and The Queens Museum of Art, New York. Numerous works can be viewed in public collections in the United States, France, Spain, Germany and Belgium. Adams has produced site-specific interventions, often in highly visible locations such as bus shelters, and urban public settings that focus on the phenomenon of

collective amnesia Social amnesia is a collective forgetting by a group of people. The concept is often cited in relation to Russell Jacoby's scholarship from the 1970s. Social amnesia can be a result of "forcible repression" of memories, ignorance, changing circums ...

in the late twentieth century. A survey of ten years of site-specific works was published in a monograph entitled ''Dennis Adams: The Architecture of Amnesia'' (1989) written by Maryanne Staniszewski. The publication was followed by two mid-career surveys organized by the

Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (, commonly abbreviated as ''M HKA'', previously ''MuHKA'') is the contemporary art museum of the city of Antwerp, Belgium. Its current director is Bart de Baere. Overview The museum holds a permanent co ...

and the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston. Following the events of September 11 near his

Tribeca Tribeca ( ), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Str ...

studio, Adams created a poetic series of fourteen

Ektachrome Ektachrome is a brand name owned by Kodak for a range of transparency, still and motion picture films previously available in many formats, including 35 mm and sheet sizes to 11 × 14 inch size. Ektachrome has a distinctive look that ...

photographs portraying the detritus filled sky over lower Manhattan. The series was entitled ''AIRBORNE which after being shown in New York in 2002 was subsequently featured in the Le Mois de la Photo (Montreal) 2003 and PhotoEspana (Madrid) 2004. Beginning in 1998 and continuing today, Adams began to explore the possibilities of video with his ''OUTTAKE'', exhibited in Bremen, Berlin and with Kent in New York. Adams presented a 17:23-second segment (416 film stills) from ''Bambule'', a 1969 un-broadcast German documentary on delinquent girls directed by

Ulrike Meinhof Ulrike Marie Meinhof (7 October 1934 – 9 May 1976) was a German left-wing militant, journalist and founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany, commonly referred to in the press as the "Baader-Meinhof gang". She is the repute ...

. These photographic stills were re-recorded as they were distributed in the Kurfurstendamm, Berlin, as "handbills," or "flyers," associated with political propaganda and advertising. Adams continued realizing a number of single channel videos including "Takedown", "Spill", "Curtain Call", "Black Belmondo" and prominently a performative installation entitled MAKE DOWN'' (2005). Here, Adams addresses the complexity of layers of representation contained in one except from ''

The Battle of Algiers ''The Battle of Algiers'' (; ) is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It is based on action undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the ...

'', particularly in the context of the ongoing transformations of the historical conflict between Islamic and Western cultures. Instead of presuming to unravel these meanings, Adams chooses instead to locate himself between the frames of the image in a re-enactment of the process of disguise. Adams has been a faculty member or Visiting Professor at numerous institutions including the

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

; École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris; Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam; and the Akademie der Bildenden Kunst, Munich. From 1997 to 2004, he was the Director of the Visual Arts Program in the School of Architecture at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. He currently lectures at Cooper Union, New York.

Artist books

* Adams, Dennis, and Mary A. Staniszewski. ''The Architecture of Amnesia''. New York, N.Y:

, 1990. * Adams, Dennis. ''Dennis Adams: Double Feature''. New York, N.Y:

, 2008. *''Recovered 10 on 10 – Adams on Garanger'', produced and published in 1993 by Les Maîtres de Forme Contemporains (mfc-michèle didier), Bruxelles. Limited edition of 6 numbered and signed copies and 3 artist's proofs. Voir mfc

Exhibitions

*1984 Solo Exhibit, the Kitchen, New York *1987 "

Skulptur Projekte Münster Skulptur Projekte Münster (Sculpture Projects Münster) is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the city of Münster (Germany). Held every ten years since 1977, the exhibition shows works of invited international artists for free in d ...

", Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster, Germany *1987 "Building Against Image" (retrospective),

The Alternative Museum The Alternative Museum was founded in 1975 by artists for artists and the broader New York City community in the United States.De Appel De Appel is a contemporary arts centre, located in Amsterdam. Since it was founded in 1975 by , the goal of De Appel is to function as a stage for research and presentation of visual arts. Exhibitions, publications and discursive events are the ...

Foundation, Amsterdam *1988 "Bezugspunkte 38/88", Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria *1989 "

Magiciens de la terre ''Magiciens de la Terre'' was a contemporary art exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris, France, from 18 May to 14 August 1989. Background Primitivism ''Magiciens de la Terre'' literally translat ...

", Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, and La Grande Halle, Parc de la Villette, Paris *1989 "Image World: Art and Media Culture", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York *1989 "Images Critiques: Adams, Jaar, Jammes, Wall", Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris *1989 "Tenir l'image à distance", Musée D'art Contemporain, Montréal *1990 ''Architecture of Amnesia'',

, New York *1990 "WORKS: Dennis Adams", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. *1990 "Passages de l'image", Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris *1990 "Rhetorical Image",

The New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

, New York *1990 "The Ready Made Boomerang", Sydney Biennale, Australia *1991 "Road to Victory", PROJECT Series, Museum of Modern Art, New York *1991 "The Solar Anus", Musée Frac Bretagne, Rennes, France. *1992 "Post Human", FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, Pully/Lausanne, Switzerland; traveled to: Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Torino; Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; Deichtorhallen Hamburg *1993 "Der Müll, ( ) Unde Der Tod",

Portikus Portikus is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Frankfurt am Main, that was founded in 1987 by Kasper König. The museum is part of Frankfurt's Museumsufer (Museum Riverbank). Portikus presents the work of both internationally renowned ar ...

, Frankfurt am Main *1994 "Selling History" (retrospective), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston *1994 "Transactions" (retrospective), Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen *1995 "Light Constructions", Museum of Modern Art, New York *1995 "10 thru 20" (solo exhibition), Stroom HCBK, The Hague *1996 "Ederle", Queens Museum of Art, New York *1999 "Panorama 2000", Organized by

Centraal Museum The Centraal Museum is the main museum in Utrecht (city), Utrecht, Netherlands, founded in 1838. The museum has a wide-ranging collection, mainly of works produced locally. The collection of the paintings by the Northern Mannerist Joachim Wte ...

, Utrecht, The Netherlands *2000

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

, Whitney Museum of Art, New York *2001 "Hortus Conclusus", Witte de With, Rotterdam *2001 Solo Exhibit,

Contemporary Museum Baltimore The Contemporary is an itinerant museum of contemporary art in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. It does not collect artworks. It was started as the Contemporary Museum by George Ciscle in 1989. During its first decade, it had no fixed ...

in collaboration with the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially ...

, Baltimore *2002 "Video topiques/Tours et Retours de l'Art Vidéo", Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, France *2003 "Warum", Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin *2004 "Ambulates/Cultura Portátil: Actitudes y Prototipos en el Espacio público", Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo of Sevilla, Spain *2004 "Freeload", Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona *2005 "Make Down", Kent Fine Art, New York City *2005 "Regarding Terror: The RAF- Exhibition", Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin and Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz *2007 "Filles rebelles". Frac Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque, France *2008 "Blickmaschinen", Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany *2008 "Revolutions 1968", Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw *2008 ''Double Feature'',

, New York *2009 "Evento 2009: Collective Intimacy", Bordeaux, France *2009 "Walls of Algiers: Narratives of the Colonial City", The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles *2010 "How Wine Became Modern", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art *2010 "La Memoria del Otro"; Museo Internacional de Chile, traveled to Centro de Arte Contempráneo Wifredo Lam, Havana *2011 "Uncanny Familiarity: Images of Terror",

C/O Berlin C/O Berlin is a private exhibition space for photography and visual media in Berlin. It is located in Amerika Haus Berlin by Zoologischer Garten station, Charlottenburg, where it has more than 2,500 square metres of space. C/O Berlin presents wor ...

*2012 "Malraux's Shoes",

, New York *2015 "Looking Back / The 9the White Columns Annual",

White Columns White Columns is New York City's oldest alternative non-profit art space. White Columns is known as a showcase for up-and-coming artists, and is primarily devoted to emerging artists who are not affiliated with galleries. All work submitted i ...

, New York

Bibliography

By Adams

*"Questionnaire." Zone 1–2, 1986, pp. 423, 455. *"Sky Writing." Historias: VII Edición del Festival Internacional de Fotografia y Artes Visuales PhotoEspaña. Catalogue. Madrid: 2004, pp. 63–66, 168–170. *"Double Feature." New York:

, 2008.

On Adams

Catalogs

*"The Architecture of Amnesia". New York:

, 1990. Essay by Mary Anne Staniszewski. *"Port of View" (catalog) Marseille: L'observatoire, 1992. *"Dennis Adams". Pamplona: Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz, 2004.

Artist's book

*"Double Feature". New York: Kent Gallery. 2008.

References

External links

Artist's Archive at Kent Fine Art

Dennis Adams: Malraux's Shoes 2012

"Dennis Adams Video Archive 1998 - 2009"

"Dennis Adams: Airborne 2002"
"dennis adams"
''Interview by Peter Dorshenko with Dennis Adams Journal of Contemporary Art''

Tributaries 1995 Public Commission in NYC

Publications on Dennis Adams

Dennis Adams Biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Dennis 1948 births Living people Artists from Des Moines, Iowa MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty Cooper Union faculty