ADAM PENDLETON


ADAM PENDLETON

Adam Pendleton’s work is a reflection of how we increasingly move through and experience the world on a sensorial level – a form of abstraction that, in its painterly, psychic and verbal expression, announces a new mode of visual composition for the twenty-first century. It investigates Blackness as a colour, an identity, a method and a political subject – in short, as a multitude. His work also poses questions about the legacy of modernism in the present day, reactivating ideas from historic avant-gardes across mediums and moments in time. Since 2008, Pendleton has articulated much of his work through the frame of Black Dada, an evolving enquiry into the relationships between Blackness, abstraction and the avant-garde. It’s a visual philosophy that confounds the distinctions between legibility and abstraction, past and present, familiar and strange, reminding us that meaning always develops through difference.

‘This desire for fragmentation, which Pendleton situates in the formal logics of painting techniques, insists upon far more than the figure-ground spatial relation of the medium. Rather, he is positing the potential of painting through a repeated layering of the self […] represented in this instance through the mode of communication by which something we call the self is expressed in the world: language. Its resistance to legibility, its deference to an existence in a different register, tone, and level, results in a poetic observation that wavers in the streaks and marks imprinted in Pendleton’s hand on the work and in the blabbering, stuttering, disappearing words that question how abstraction functions and how the fragment acts upon the whole.’

A. Edwards ‘Adam Pendleton: Here Is Your Language’, in Adam Pendleton, Berlin: Phaidon, 2020, p. 62

Image: Untitled (After Julius Eastman), 2019, silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas, 91.4 x 71.1 cm.; 36 x 28 in. Photo: Andy Romer

Artist Interview

Solo Exhibitions


Group Exhibitions


Selected Institutional Exhibitions


Biography


VITA

1984

Born in Richmond, USA


2000–2002

Artspace Independent Study Program, Pietrasanta


2024

Rosenthal Family Foundation Award


Lives and works in Germantown and New York, USA

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin

Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul 

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Baltimore Museum of Art

Blanton Museum of Art, Austin

Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York

Centro de Art Mayo CA2M, Madrid

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Dallas Museum of Art

DePaul Art Museum, Chicago

Deji Art Museum, Nanjing

Fundación Canaria para el Desarrollo de la Pintura, Gran Canaria

The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker

Lambert, Avignon

Longlati Foundation, Shanghai

Los Angeles County Museum of Art 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis 

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Paris

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Spinoza Foundation, Paris

Start Museum, Shanghai

The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

Tate, London

University of Chicago

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Whitney Museum of Art, New York

Yuz Museum, Shanghai

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

Adam Pendleton x Arlene Sechet
Pedro Cera, Madrid

An Abstraction

Pace, New York

These Gestures Towards You

Galerie Max Hetzler, London


2023

To Divide By

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis

Blackness, White, and Light

Mumok, Vienna


2022

These Things We’ve Done Together
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal

Adam Pendleton: Toy Solider
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Maag Areal, Zurich

Adam Pendleton: In Abstraction
Pace, Geneva


2021

Paper
Pace, Palm Beach

Drawings
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

Who Is Queen?
The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)

David Adjaye Adam Pendleton
Pace, Hong Kong (catalogue)


2020

Begin Again
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Consortium Museum, Dijon

Elements of Me
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (catalogue)


2019

These Elements of Me
Pace, Seoul

Who We Are
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (catalogue)

NO THING: Adam Pendleton / Pope L.
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich


2018

Liam Gillick Adam Pendleton
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York

Our Ideas
Pace, London (catalogue)

New Works
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon

what a day was this
Lever House, New York

List Projects
MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge


2017

Which We Can
Pace, Palo Alto

Front Room
Baltimore Museum of Art

shot him in the face
KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin
Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead

Becoming Incredible
Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

Just back from Los Angeles: A portrait of Yvonne Rainer
Performa video comission premier at Anthology Film Archives, New York


2016

Midnight in America
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

Becoming Imperceptible
Contemporary arts center New Orleans, New Orleans;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2017) (catalogue)


2015

New Work
Pace, London


2014

Selected Works
Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago

Pace, New York


2012

I'll Be Your
Pace, London (catalogue)


2011

New Black Dada Paintings
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon

the women
Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago

Radio (One)
Salina Art Center, Kansas (catalogue)
 

2010

BAND
The Kitchen, New York

Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary

EL T D K Los Angeles
Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles

chandelier across cognition generates glow linguistic signals perception
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon


2009

EL T D K Amsterdam. Part I: three scenes
Kunstverein Amsterdam

EL T D K
Haunch of Venison, Berlin (catalogue)
 

2008

Rendered in Black
Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indiana


2007

Rendered in Black and Rendered
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago


2006

Bam Split Lab and the Afro Futuristic Underground
Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles


2005

History
Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles

Deeper Down There
Yvon Lambert, New York

Gorilla, My Love
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago


2004

Being Here
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, University of Illinois, Urbana

Being Here
Wallspace Gallery, New York

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

The Culture. Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century 
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt

On Paper
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

A Dark Hymn: Highlights from the Hill Collection
Hill Art Foundation, New York


2023

Drawing Triennial 2023: All That Lies Between 
The Norwegian Drawing Center, Oslo

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century
Baltimore Museum of Art

Celebrating David Kordansky Gallery's 20th Anniversary

David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

In Defense of Symbolic Value: Artistic Procedures in the Resort
, curated by Isabelle Graw
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

Distant Voices
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris


2022

Burning at the Edges
Longlati Foundation, Shanghai

On Certainty: Gifts from Collection of Suzanne F. Cohen
Baltimore Museum of Art

Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Performing Documents: Modes of Assembling
Center for Book Arts, New York

This Tender, Fragile Thing
Jack Shainman Gallery, The School, Kinderhook, New York

Seoul Pop-Up Exhibition
David Kordansky Gallery, Seoul


2021

Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (catalogue)

Subliminal Horizons
Alexander Gray Associates, Germantown & New York

Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America
New Museum, New York (catalogue)

APMA, CHAPTER THREE – from the APMA Collection
Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul


2020

Artists for New York
Hauser & Wirth, New York

Drawing 2020
Gladstone Gallery, New York

To Be Determined
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas

Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

Mapping the Collection
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Yesterday's Tomorrow: Selections from the Rose Collection, 1933–2018
Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham


2019

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Manifesto: Art X Agency
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.

Surface Tension
Carolina Nitsch Project Room, New York


2018

LeWitt, Nevelson, Pendleton Part II
Pace, Geneva

Acquisition Selection 2018
The Art Institute of Chicago

DPAM Collects: Happy Little Trees and Other Recent Acquisitions
DePaul Art Museum, Chicago

LeWitt, Nevelson, Pendleton
Pace, Geneva

Second Sight: The Paradox of Vision in Contemporary Art
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick
 

2017

Public Movement: On Art, Politics, and Dance
Moderna Museet, Malmö

Sonic Rebellion: Music as Resistance
Museum of Contemporray Art, Detroit

I am you, you are too
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

How to live together
Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna

The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin
The Jewish Museum, New York

American African American
Phillips, London

OCCUPY MANA: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy (Year 1)
Mana Contemporary, Jersey City


2016

The Eighth Climate (What does Art do?)
11th Gwangju Biennale

The revolution will not be grey
Aspen Art Musuem

The language of things
Public art fund, City Hall Park, New York

Blackness in Abstraction
Pace, New York

New Visions
Tensta Konsthall, Spanga

Lorraine O´Grady: Initial Recognition
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville


2015

Personne et les autres
Belgian Pavilion, 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale de Venezia, Venice

Sharon Hayes, Tony Lewis, Adam Pendleton
Andrea Rosen Gallery 2, New York

Adventures of the black square: Abstract Art and Society 1915–2015
Whitechapel Gallery, London

Young, Gifted and Black
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

The 2015 Biennial of the Americas: Now? Now!
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver


2014

Civil Rights
Void, Derry

Selected Works
Travesia Cuarto, Guadalajara

We Love Video This Summer
Pace, Beijng

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Love Story – The Anne & Wolfgang Titze Collection
Winter Palace and 21er Haus, Belvedere, Vienna

The Disappearance of the Fireflies
Collection Lambert, Avignon

Joan Jonas & Adam Pendleton
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon


2013

The 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts: Interruption
International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana

Warhol Ones
Half Gallery, New York

After Hours 2: Murals on the Bowery
Art Production Fund, in partnership with The New Museum, Bowery


2012

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston;
Grey Art Gallery at New York University, New York (2013);
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2013);
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2014)

Books: Adam Pendleton, Matt Keegan and Ricardo Valentim
Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon

Alphabets/Heaps of Language
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Phantom Limb: Approaches to Painting Today
Museum of Contemporary art, Chicago

La Triennale: Intense Proximity
Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Heart to Hand
Swiss Institute/Contemporary Art, New York


2011

A Promise Is A Cloud
MetroTech Center, New York

Never Odd or Even
Grimmuseum, Berlin

Fifth Contour Biennial, Mechelen

Soft Machines
Pace, New York


2010

Quadruple-Consciousness
Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia

It Is Written
Centre Pompidou-Metz

Greater New York 2010
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York

Collected: Reflections on the Permanent Collection
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

Self as Disappearance
Centre d’Art Contemporain, La Synagogue de Delme

Desire
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin

From Then to Now: Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

Afro-Modernism: Journeys through the Black Atlantic
Tate, Liverpool

Blood of a Poet
Thierry Goldberg Projects, New York


2009

The One Hundred and Sixty-Third Floor
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

After 1968: Contemporary Artists and The Civil Rights Legacy
California African American Museum, Los Angeles

Performa 09: The Prompt
White Slab Palace, New York

Cargo/Cargo Manifest/Cargo Vision
Autocenter, Berlin

Infinitesimal Eternity
Yale University School of Art, New Haven

Black Hole
Kunsthalle Andratx, Mallorca

Constellations: Paintings from the MCA Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Encodings: Artists in Residence, 2008–2009
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

Talk Show
Institute of Contemporary Art, London

The Generational: Younger Than Jesus
New Museum, New York


2008

Matter of Fact: Aftermath
Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo

U-TURN: Perform History II, U-TURN Quadrennial for Contemporary Art
Aarhus Art Building

Manifesto Marathon
Serpentine Gallery, London

Macrocosm
Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles

Manifesta 7: Matter of Fact
Manifattura Tabacchi, Rovereto (catalogue)

Freeway Balconies
Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin

The Future as Disruption
The Kitchen, New York

After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy
High Museum of Art, Atlanta (catalogue)

Object: The Undeniable Success of Operations
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Hey Hey Glossolalia: The Eroticism of Pedagogy
Creative Time, Judson Memorial Church, New York (catalogue)

2007

Performa 07: The Second Biennial of New Visual Art Performance
Stephen Weiss Studio, New York

Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago;
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2008);
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2008) (catalogue)

Resistance Is…
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Commemorating Thirty Years, Part III, 1991–2007
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago


2006

Intersteller Low Ways
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago

R³: Reading ‘Ritin ‘Rithmetic, 30 Years Later
Castle Gallery, Inverness

Sea Change
Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles

Please Love Me
Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee

Figures de l’acteur: Le paradoxe du comédien
Collection Lambert, Avignon

Message Personnel
Yvon Lambert, Paris


2005

Frequency
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (catalogue)

25 Bold Moves
House of Campari, New York

Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art since 1970
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (catalogue)

2004

When Contemporary Art Speaks
Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indiana

Seven More (Things We Like)
Conner Contemporary Art, Washington D.C.

Black Milk: Theories on Suicide
Marvelli Gallery, New York

Optimo: Manifestations of Optimism in Contemporary Art
Ballroom Marfa, Texas

It’s About Memory
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2023 (Eds.): Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman, 2023

Galerie Max Hetzler (Ed.): Adam Pendleton: Who We Are, Berlin, 2019

Pace Gallery (Ed.): Adam Pendleton: Our Ideas, London, 2018

König Books (Ed.):Adam Pendleton: Black Dada Reader, London, 2017

Contemporary Arts Center (Ed.): Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible, New Orleans, 2016

Pace Gallery (Ed.): Adam Pendleton: I’ll Be Your, London, 2012

Salina Art Center (Ed.): RADIO, Salina, 2011

Haunch of Venison (Ed.): Adam Pendleton: EL T D K, Berlin, 2009

Kunstverein Publishing (Ed.): Grey-Blue Grain, Amsterdam, 2009

Galerie Yvon Lambert (Ed.): Adam Pendleton: So I Independent in Georgia in the 90's, Paris / New York, 2006

Videos


Publications


In Defense of Symbolic Value: Artistic Procedures in the Resort

Exhibition Poster
2023

€ 15.00

Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2023
With a conversation between Amy Sillman, Adam Pendleton, and Isabelle Graw

€ 30.00

Adam Pendleton: Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman

Exhibition Poster
2021

€ 20.00

Adam Pendleton: Who We Are

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London, Berlin 2019
With texts by Omar Berrada

€ 50.00

Adam Pendleton: Who We Are

Exhibition Poster
2019

€ 20.00

Adam Pendleton: Who We Are

Exhibition Poster
2019

€ 20.00

Selected Press


Plaster Magazine March 2024

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Collectors Agenda June 2023

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Architectural Digest November 2022

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T Magazine September 2022

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Montreal Gazette March 2022

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frieze October 2021

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The New York Times September 2021

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Interview Magazine Summer 2021

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ARTnews June 2020

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Der Tagesspiegel June 2019

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The New York Times May 2018

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WSJ Magazine March 2018

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The Brooklyn Rail September 2016

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Art in America January 2015

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The New York Observer April 2012

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Artforum November 2011

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BOMB Magazine November 2010

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The New York Times May 2010

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News