From March 1-12, SomoS Arts presents Gradually, then suddenly, the first solo exhibition in Berlin by Canadian visual artist Adam Lupton, featuring paintings created during his extended artist residency. In this multifaceted survey, Lupton’s surreal work draws enlightening connections between the personal experience of OCD and the pervasive anxieties of society at large; the collective hyper-awareness caused by self-isolation, loneliness, and other pandemic-related woes.

The thematically and visually coherent body of work presented in the show consists of large paintings in oil and acrylic that take us on an intimate and perilous mental journey. As Lupton explains, the exhibition’s title, Gradually, then suddenly, refers to a passage from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises that describes the deceptive dynamics of disquiet. It resonates with him because of the way it portrays how anxiety and depression creep in and build and then quickly engulf us.

Lupton’s way of painting reveals the universal by unabashedly delving into the personal, creating arresting, scrupulously-observed artworks situated between psychological painting and magical realism. Formulating a consistent aesthetic of disquiet, they feature scenes that appear to follow the uncanny logic of dreams or some dark, inescapable currents of consciousness. The recurring stamp and monotype-like painting transfers that are juxtaposed with the depictions in grid-like patterns break the pictorial space, in many cases giving a sense of being contained, or hinting at the repetition of compulsion. Often it seems that a kind of therapeutic “triumph by surrender” is enacted in the work’s angst-ridden scenarios, unavoidably following a nightmarish conclusion rather than resisting it.

In this manner, their intense introspection sets them apart. As poet Dawn Lonsinger observes, “In a moment when the contemporary painting scene is filled with frenetic full-to-bursting canvases and parodic mash-ups, Adam Lupton’s work affectingly interrogates our troubled interiorities in a quieter, fuller way, enlisting us to consider a world drawn between pathos and mythos, wherein we are pulled between our endlessly digressive self-narratives, inherited cultural narratives, and vaunted dreamlike escapes.”

About Adam Lupton:

Adam Lupton (b. 1987, Vancouver) received a Bachelor’s in Communication Design from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver Canada (2010), and a Master of Fine Arts from New York Academy of Art in New York City (2016). Previous exhibitions include Cerberus at GR Gallery, New York City (2020), Drawn Together at Unit London (2020), 2020 Vision at Southampton Arts Center, (2020), TELOS at Sugarlift Project Space, New York City (2019), and Beyond Figuration at Cheng Xi Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2018). Read more.

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Gradually, then suddenly – Solo exhibition by Adam Lupton
March 1-12 , Tuesday – Saturday, 14 – 19 h, and by appointment
SomoS, Kottbusser Damm 95, 1.0G, 10967 Berlin (U8 – Schönleinstraße)

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Adam Lupton’s artist residency at SomoS is kindly supported by The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.

This post is also available in: German