WEST BUND ART & DESIGN 2023

For the 2023 edition of West Bund Art & Design, Galerie Thomas Schulte is thrilled to be showing a solo presentation by Marina Adams with recent paintings and drawings.

Marina Adams’ loose composing of color and line opens up richly evocative constellations that are both alive with energetic fluctuations and pared down spaces of quiet reflection. Rather than a concrete form, what is shared among the works is an appearance of slow growth, or unfurling, conveyed by criss-crossing lines, repeated verticals and stacked shapes—reminiscent of links in a chain, accordion folds, rising columns, or even ancient symbols. Although vertical in orientation and movement, there is a horizontal tension that tugs at them, as though opening them up. A central, linear structure arranges electric color in loose geometries that attain new expressivity with each iteration. The lines do not so much separate color planes as tie them together into a whole that is completely at ease with its idiosyncrasies, irregularities, and nuances.

Besides four paintings on canvas, we will present a series of small crayon drawings. These studies of sorts take on a character of their own. The linear structure found in the paintings achieves greater angularity here. Lines vibrate intensely, wavering like strummed guitar strings. Color is more sparingly applied in most, but vibrant nonetheless, echoing the striking colorations of Adams’ paintings. In both, a sense of fluidity is enhanced by moments of translucency, overlap, drips, and slippage—a wateriness that corresponds to the wavy lines moving vertically across the surface, at times jagged and at times soft. Oscillations in shade and intensity consequently open color spaces that are neither flat nor impenetrable.

The works will be on view at Galerie Thomas Schulte’s stand at West Bund 2023, Booth B320.