DERRICK ADAMS

Incorporated into the compositions are reflections of sidewalks, roads, and cars—a merging of interior and exterior spaces. Created in various sizes and configurations, the paintings are complemented by two sculptures made with mannequin heads and wigs. Adams draws from the strategies of Pop art, highlighting commercial display, consumer products, and desire. He constructs his paintings with interlocking planes of colour, abstracting the heads to suggest the multiplicity of identity. In addition, his experimental approach to the representation of Black urban life was inspired in part by artist Romare Bearden’s panoramic collage, The Block (1971, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Derived from many locales, Adams’s subjects are Black women who embody the roles of both consumer and muse. Their engagement with various forms of costuming is cross-cultural—often the prototype for how the transformation of appearance expresses style, attitude, and individualism.