Adam Pendleton

Adam Pendleton (born 1984) is an American conceptual artist known for his multi-disciplinary practice, involving painting, silkscreen, collage, video, performance, and word art. His work often involves the investigation of language and the recontextualization of history through appropriated imagery. He has been featured twice in Forbes Magazines "30 Under 30" list. In 2024, he received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Early life Pendleton was born in 1984, Richmond, Virginia. and for college he attended the Artspace Independent Study Program in Peitrasanta, Italy. After art studies, he went to New York in 2002, at the age of 18, with the intention of becoming an artist.

Pendleton often juxtaposes imagery, language, music and concepts from a variety of subjects such as philosophy and important historical movements, creating complex work that allows for multiple interpretations. He has often focused on significant moments in Black American history such as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and the recent Black Lives Matter movement that emerged following the killing of Trayvon Martin.

Career and work In 2004, Pendleton landed his first solo show, Being Here at Wallspace in Manhattan.

In his 2007 performance piece, The Revival, the artist, dressed in a white tuxedo jacket, black pants and bright green shoes, gave a sermon while accompanied by a 30-person gospel choir. Pendleton's homily, titled "a dream of an uncommon language," featured language borrowed from poets such as John Ashbery, Charles Bernstein and Donald Hall, Also included in the revival were "testimonials" from contemporary artist Liam Gillick and poet Jena Osman. The Black Dada series of paintings contain a partial view of Sol LeWitt's cube sculptures, accompanied by one or more letters derived from the phrase "Black Dada." The phrase comes from the 1964 poem "Black Dada Nihilismus" by Amiri Baraka.

System of Display is a series of works involving mirrors, letters and silkscreened images appropriated from art publications and other books. and of a couple dancing in the street during a celebration of independence in Congo, as well as stills of Anna Karina from Jean-Luc Godard's film Made in U.S.A.. Its name comes from the philosophical writing of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Becoming Imperceptible aims to create a "counter-portitrature" by blending the approaches of the historical avant garde with historical Black movements. The effect is the merging of disparate ideas, people and imagery, collectively blending and engaging each other in the space of art.

In 2017, Pendleton published the Black Dada Reader, a sourcebook containing photocopied texts by Haryette Mullen, Gertrude Stein, Sun Ra, Hugo Ball, Stokely Carmichael, Ad Reinhardt, Joan Retallack, Ron Silliman, Adrian Piper, and many others, as well as newly commissioned essays from several writers and curators. The book was named one of the best art books of 2017 by the New York Times.

In 2020, Pendleton created a unique and provocative cover for The New York Times Magazine July 4 edition which featured a Frederick Douglass speech with imagery overlaid, suggesting a disconnect with America's promise of freedom versus its continued post-slavery caste system.

Art market In 2012, Pendleton signed with Pace Gallery at age 28, the youngest artist to do so since the 1970s. His first show with Pace was at the gallery's Soho London branch in the fall of 2012. Famous collectors include Steven A. Cohen, Leonardo DiCaprio and Venus Williams.

In 2023, Pendleton and Venus Williams curated a charity auction hosted by Pace Gallery. Co-organized with Sotheby's, proceeds will support a preservation project for the childhood home of Nina Simone. Pendleton jointly purchased Simone's childhood home in 2017 along with Ellen Gallagher, Rashid Johnson, and Julie Mehretu. Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Member of the advisory board (since 2019)

Personal Pendleton came out to his mother in 1999.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen, Hirshhorn Museum (2025-2027) Adam Pendleton: To Divide By, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (2023-2024) Adam Pendleton. Blackness, White, and Light, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (2023-2024) Adam Pendleton, Le Consortium (2020) List Projects: Adam Pendleton, MIT List Visual Arts Center (2018) Adam Pendleton: shot him in the face, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (2017); KW Institute for Contemporary Art (2017) Becoming Imperceptible, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (2017); Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2016); Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans) (2016) Radio (ONE), Salina Art Center (2011) Adam Pendleton: BAND, The Kitchen (2010) Adam Pendleton: EL T D K Amsterdam: Part I: three scenes (performance), Kunstverein, Amsterdam (2009); Part II: grey-blue grain (exhibition), Kunstverein, Amsterdam (2010); Part III: BAND (film screening) (2009) Being Here, Wallspace, Manhattan (2004)