Adam King

New Suburbia Flowers

5 April – 29 June 2018
Private View Thursday 5 April 2018, 6.00 – 8.00pm

Works are displayed on plinths on the ground floor of the Alison Richard Building.

In the spring of 2016, Adam King returned to the area south of Norwich, Norfolk, where he grew up. The semi-rural landscape is currently undergoing considerable road and housing development. Over a period of 14 months, King produced a series of constructions, along with related regular format drawings, in order to explore and make sense of the changes in the identity of a once-familiar landscape.

The works in this exhibition explore development in terms of media, form and ideas over this period. King returned to some earlier pieces in light of later developments e.g. incorporated fragments of charcoal drawings. The works are collaged from a variety of often quite light and ephemeral materials that include charcoal, print, foam, vinyl, spray paint and wire. These are held together with paper clips, a modern form of construction that enhances the overall feel of precariousness and fragility. The resulting malleable accumulations forms meld architectural and organic qualities. The use of pattern and colour in some pieces inspired by US sculptor Frank Stella enhance surfaces whilst transforming identity. This work first began as 2d linocut prints. King was making repeat patterns of abstracted houses and trees but became dissatisfied with the regularity of the format. He started to reconfigure them into free-standing structures that he felt brought together form and content more successfully.

Adam King was born in 1971 in Norwich, Norfolk. He received a BA (Hons) Painting from Brighton University (1994) and an MA in Drawing from Wimbledon School of Art, London (2003).
Recent solo projects include: Storm Field, Canal gallery, London (2016) and an installation of collages at Merton College, University of Oxford (2016), Recent group shows include: Rejuvenation, Shoe Factory Social Club, Norwich, (2018), Drawings for Sculpture, 20/21 Visual Arts, Lincolnshire, (2017) and PomoGaze Festival, Leeds City Art Gallery (2015). Private Collections include V22, London, International Collage centre, USA and Charles Saatchi.