The Hole Presents "Kidnapping Incites Years of Murderous Doom" by Adam Parker Smith

Author

Lainya MaganÃÉa, A&O PR

Release Date

Monday, October 16, 2017

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The Hole is delighted to announce Kidnapping Incites Years of Murderous Doom, a solo exhibition of new works by Adam Parker Smith, his second with the gallery, on view October 21 – November 12, 2017. Taking Homer’s epic saga The Iliad as its point of departure, this body of work updates and explores Greco-Roman Classical sculpture using materials such as mylar balloons, resin, and EVA foam.

The exhibition title, Kidnapping Incites Years of Murderous Doom, is a cheeky six-word paraphrase of The Iliad. Using this ancient text as a thematic structure, Parker Smith explores formal concerns such as gesture and movement through the enigmatic transformation of material. While his first exhibition at The Hole featured store-bought balloons recontextualized, in this exhibition Parker Smith creates his own custom-made balloon shapes by cutting out mylar sheets himself. Lining the material with fiberglass and applying multiple coats of resin, he utilizes a one-way air valve to articulate the form of the sculptures, creating humanistic and vase-like shapes that reference Classical statuary. Objects such as artificial spears are incorporated into some of the mylar works as he transforms balloons into Spartan warriors, Odysseus, Prometheus or the Three Graces. Also on view is a series of large-scale, EVA foam sculpture representing the female form in languid repose. UV printed with marble pattern, faux bronze, and iron patina, the droopiness of these foam figures is a playful allusion to the impermanence of Classical materials as well as to oft-idealized historical representations of the female body.

Underlying each piece is a sense of humor and sincerity derived from the artist’s obsessions, fears, and desires. Kidnapping Incites Years of Murderous Doom is a psychologically acute exploration into the tragicomic and perverse nature of artistic production and consumption.

About Adam Parker Smith
Adam Parker Smith is a New York-based sculpture and installation artist. He received his BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his MFA from Tyler School of Art. Smith has attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Sculpture Space, Bemis, Djerassi, Jentel, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. His work has been shown widely in the US, as well as internationally at Urbis, Manchester, England, Nordine Zidoun, Luxembourg, Priska Juschka, New York, The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts, The Soap Factory Minneapolis, Painted Bride, Philadelphia, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, and TSST Gallery in Hong Kong. Smith’s work has been written about in The New York Times, Art in America, Beautiful Decay, The Village Voice, Fiber Arts, Artforum.com, Art World, Whitewall Magazine and the New York Post.

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