Lisa Adams at CB1- in Art Knowledge News

Los Angeles, California.- CB1 Gallery is pleased to present "Paradise Notwithstanding", new paintings by Lisa Adams, on view at the gallery through January 15th 2012. This is Lisa Adams’ first exhibition. Lisa Adams’ new paintings continue her exploration of two worlds, that of decay and that of possibility. The place that she conjures through this juxtaposition is one that comes to terms with the coexistence of the real and the ideal. “It’s a vision of imperfection’s guiding light,” says the artist. Just as decay and possibility come together in Lisa Adams’ work for "Paradise Notwithstanding", the new paintings are completely fluent in both the language of abstraction and of representation. This balance, and tension, leads viewers to explore the varied possibilities within each work, with visual iconography including water features, flora elements, atmospheric texture, and color fields.

In writing about her new work, Adams says: “Though the paintings could be viewed as a puzzle, I’d rather think of them as a collection of elements that foster our ability to trust a sense of place in the world while they encourage us to question reality. I’m not interested in beauty or non-beauty, hence the title Paradise Notwithstanding. I’m interested in the complexity that won’t allow me to define what I’m looking at, and to establish a narrative; a narrative that’s shy and hidden from view and with time unpacks itself. In my paradise, I see too much. I’m aware of the past, present and future all at once. I can see underneath and behind solid objects. It’s a skill not unique to me but one that most do not care to employ because it’s too demanding and too isolating. Then what’s the attraction? I have to think that it’s a full display of life on life’s terms. It’s all the undesirable stuff and all the great stuff mixed up together. It’s not a visual world of our choosing per se but rather one that we’ve been dealt.”

Lisa Adams is a painter and public artist with more than 30 years of continuous studio practice, and has a B.A. from Scripps College and an M.F.A. from the Claremont Graduate University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been an artist-in-resident in Slovenia, Finland, Holland, Japan and Costa Rica. Her many accomplishments include a Fulbright Professional Scholar Award, and her work is in the public collections of Eli Broad, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, the Laguna Museum of Art and the Edward Albee Foundation. Lisa’s first monograph book, Vicissitude of Circumstance, published by ZERO+ Publishing was released in Fall 2011. She currently blogs on Los Angeles art for the Huffington Post.