OPEN STUDIOS SUMMER 2016: DERRICK ADAMS' DAY PARTY and the OPENING OF “PROJECT AND SUPPLY”

OPEN STUDIOS SUMMER 2016

Gateway Project Spaces Summer Open Studios Grand Opening of Project + Supply Derrick Adams' Day Party WHEN: Saturday, June 11, 2016 ; 1- 6pm  WHERE: Gateway Project Spaces, 2 Gateway Center | Newark, New Jersey www.gatewayprojectspaces.com We're excited to invite you to join us for our second Open Studios + Brunch event of 2016. Open Studios is a great opportunity to engage with artists, see what they're working on and network. Spend the day touring and indulging in frosty summer cocktails, delicious danishes and breakfast delights. Gateway Project Spaces is also thrilled to launch an art supply store *Project + Supply*. The space will include a variety of supplies that meet the needs of professional artists such as paint, canvases, drawing and drafting materials, screen printing items, journals, office supplies and more. Small works by Project For Empty Space gallery alums will also be available. Along side of the Open Studios, Artist In Residence, Derrick Adams will be throwing a DAY PARTY, as part of his current exhibition at the Project For Empty Space gallery, Culture Club. DAY PARTY is an energetic and engaging activation of Adams's DJ booth installation. Come listen and dance to beats by some special guests DJs! Image: Anthony Alvarez (c) 2016

CURRENTLY ON VIEW IN THE PROJECT FOR EMPTY [at] GATEWAY PROJECT SPACES DERRICK ADAMS, CULTURE CLUB

WHEN: On view through June 24, 2016 WHERE: Project For Empty Space [at] Gateway Project Spaces 2 Gateway Center Concourse Level | Newark, NJ 07102 Culture Club is a solo project of large-scale works on paper exploring ideas of celebration, highlighting the Black figure in the context of contemporary culture and leisure. With a nod to cultural perseverance, the display gives perspective to the creative output and outlet of Black America as a reaction to the joys and struggles of just being. Adams' seriocomic approach in Culture Club is achieved through a series of figurative mixed media painting-collages and installations. A spread of twenty pool-lounging figures, better known as the “Floaters,” traverse the gallery, where they function both as individual vignettes and as a nonlinear narrative. Each floater is a swath of deep blue acrylic on paper that incorporate collaged elements of vivid African prints and other graphic textiles depicting swimming pool scenes of figures in states of rest and play on inflatable and whimsical pool floats. The “Floater” paintings are joined by additional collage works resembling aerial views of table settings of celebratory gatherings and festive unions, communicating collectiveness and family history - past, present and future, surviving and thriving. African heritage and American nationalism are central to the conversation taking place in Culture Club and explores this relationship, offering not only a commentary on the joy of the present; but also, presenting a direction for the future. Derrick Adams is a multidisciplinary New York-based artist and former Curatorial Director of Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea. Adams received his MFA from Columbia University and BFA from Pratt Institute and is an alumni of the Skowhegan School and Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. His awards include a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, S.J. Weiler Award, and an Agnes Martin Fellowship. Since 2001, Adams has exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally, including MoMA PS1; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Studio Museum in Harlem; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Contemporary Art Museum Houston; Birmingham Museum of Art; and PERFORMA ‘05, ‘13 (commissioned by the Calder Foundation), and ‘15; Adams’ work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Birmingham Museum of Art. He recently served as guest curator for the inaugural curated section of VOLTA NY 2016. Adams’ work can be seen in New York at Tilton Gallery; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; Gallerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris; and online at derrickadams.com. Image: Anthony Alvarez (c) 2016