\\\”Derrick Adams: Buoyant\\\”

The Hudson River Museum presents Derrick Adams: Buoyant, a new exhibition showcasing  work that delves deeply and fearlessly into the nooks and crannies of Black life and culture, unveiling a nuanced wholeness of humanity. The multidisciplinary, New York-based artist depicts a world where joy, love, leisure, and even prosaic normalcy play central roles, methodically filling the many voids and omissions in popular visual culture.This is the first museum exhibition of Adams’ Floaters series, will debut We Came to Party and Plan, a new body of related works the artist conceived during the summer of 2019. 

Executed between 2016 and 2019, the Floaters series is a collection of vividly painted portraits depicting Black people in various states of rest and play, buoyantly floating on calm waters. Relaxed bodies, some with a gentle grin, others holding a summertime beverage, melt into rainbow-colored unicorns or candy-shaped plastic floaties. This classically American iconography signifies the carefree pleasures of success: the American Dream in physical form. Adams recontextualizes this classic visual trope to create a more accurate and fuller representation of the lived experience.

In addition to works from the Floaters series, the exhibition will feature an immersive installation entitled We Came to Party and Plan as well as Tables Turned, an earlier series also related to the celebration. This newly created body of work invites viewers into a party atmosphere full of complexity. As with his Floaters series, We Came to Party and Plan explores the multi-dimensionality of the Black lived experience. Here, a party is not solely a place for celebration, it is a complex network of human interactions leading to outcomes that range from the mundane to the revolutionary. 

The exhibition is organized by the Hudson River Museum, and co-curated by James E. Bartlett, founder of Open Art, and Laura Vookles, Chair of the Hudson River Museum’s Curatorial Department. 

Major sponsorship of the exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts. This exhibition is also supported in part by the City of Yonkers, Mayor Mike Spano; Luxembourg & Dayan; Rhona Hoffman Gallery; and Salon 94. The production of the custom wallpaper for We Came To Party and Plan has been generously donated by twenty2 wallpaper. In July 2020, Derrick Adams: Buoyant will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, which is supporting the development of the show.

#HRMBuoyant #DerrickAdams

Image: Derrick Adams (American, born 1970). Floater 80 (Self-Portrait), 2018. Acrylic paint on paper, 50 × 50 inches. Courtesy of the artist.