About
Adam McEwen’s work resides somewhere between the celebratory and funereal. After writing obituaries for the Daily Telegraph in London, he began producing obituaries of living subjects such as Bill Clinton and Jeff Koons, highlighting the blurred line between history and fiction. In a reverse Midas-effect, McEwen has answered to the shimmering claims of Minimalist art by creating contemporary work that is freighted with the leaden melancholy of modern history. As a meditation on the many lives and deaths of art, he has created a space that conflates a beleaguered present with the afterlife of a potent and contentious moment in art history, in much the same way as his obituaries narrate the future-perfect of the rich, the famous, the beautiful, and the notorious. McEwen’s dead zone of dark relics and faded memories confronts us, literally and metaphysically, with the filthy lucre of our past and present.
Adam McEwen was born in 1965 in London, England. He received his B.A. in 1987 from Christ Church, Oxford, and then received his B.F.A. in 1991 from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. McEwen’s work has been shown in major exhibitions around the world, including “Axis of Praxis,” Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2006); “Into Me/Out of Me,” P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2006); “Beg, Borrow and Steal,” Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2009); “The Reach of Realism,” Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2009); “Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010, traveled to Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain); “The Last Newspaper,” New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2010); “America Is Hard to See,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015); and “Progressive Praxis,” de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, Miami (2016). McEwen’s work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Recent solo exhibitions include The McAllister Institute, New York (2003); The Goss Michael Foundation, Dallas (2012); The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2013); Museo Civico Diocesano di Santa Maria dei Servi, Città della Piene (2015); “Tinnitus,” The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2016); and “Adam McEwen: I Think I'm in Love,” Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2017). McEwen’s works are in the public collections of the Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Scotland; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; de la Cruz Collection, Miami; and Arts Council Collection, England.
McEwen has curated various projects and exhibitions, including “Power, Corruption and Lies,” (with Neville Wakefield; Roth Horowitz, New York, 2004); “Interstate” (Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, 2005); and “Beneath the Underdog” (with Nate Lowman; Gagosian Gallery, 2007). In 2010, he curated “Fresh Hell” at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, as the 2010 edition of the Carte Blanche series.
McEwen currently lives and works in New York City.
#AdamMcEwen
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Exhibitions
Fairs, Events & Announcements

Art Fair
Art Basel Hong Kong 2023
March 22–25, 2023
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com
Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 with a presentation of modern and contemporary works by international artists.
Jadé Fadojutimi, As usual, the season’s showers tend to linger, 2023 © Jadé Fadojutimi

Art Fair
Art Basel Miami Beach 2022
December 1–3, 2022, booth D5
Miami Beach Convention Center
artbasel.com
Gagosian is pleased to present a selection of modern and contemporary works at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Returning to Miami for the fair’s twentieth anniversary, the gallery is honored to have participated each year the fair has been held.
Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair
West Bund Art & Design 2022
November 11–13, 2022, booth A102
West Bund Art Center, Shanghai
westbundshanghai.com
Gagosian is pleased to participate in the ninth edition of West Bund Art & Design. The gallery will present new works made for the fair by Georg Baselitz, Roe Ethridge, Thomas Houseago, Alex Israel, Harmony Korine, Adam McEwen, Jim Shaw, Alexandria Smith, Spencer Sweeney, and Tatiana Trouvé, alongside works by Ashley Bickerton, Urs Fischer, Katharina Grosse, Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik, Richard Prince, Ugo Rondinone, Ed Ruscha, Richard Wright, and Zeng Fanzhi.
Gagosian’s booth at West Bund Art & Design 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Adam McEwen, © Roe Ethridge, © Alex Israel, © Harmony Korine. Photo: JJYPHOTO
Museum Exhibitions

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Third Dimension
Works from the Brant Foundation
November 13, 2019–September 3, 2020
Brant Foundation, New York
brantfoundation.org
Bringing together more than twenty artists integral to the Brant Foundation’s collection, this exhibition offers a glimpse into the multifaceted practices of artists whose work Peter M. Brant has collected over the past fifty years. Work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Urs Fischer, Mike Kelley, Adam McEwen, Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.
Installation view, Third Dimension: Works from the Brant Foundation, Brant Foundation, New York, November 13, 2019–September 3, 2020. Artwork, front to back: © Urs Fischer, © Dan Flavin

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The Transported Man
April 29–October 22, 2017
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing
broadmuseum.msu.edu
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University is pleased to announce its debut exhibition curated by director Marc-Olivier Wahler. The Transported Man spans the entire museum and features more than fifty renowned and emerging artists whose work relies on the notion of belief. Work by Walter De Maria, Urs Fischer, and Adam McEwen is included.
Urs Fischer, Untitled, 2015. Photo by Mats Nordman

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99 Cents or Less
May 19–August 6, 2017
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
mocadetroit.org
A major group exhibition of ninety-nine artists based in the United States addresses Detroit’s ongoing economic crisis and its 2013 bankruptcy. Four years after a federal judge approved Detroit’s bankruptcy-exit plan, the city’s financial present and future are still in flux. This exhibition is a reflection on the realities of a city that was once one of the country’s wealthiest and most diverse. Work by Piero Golia, Alex Israel, Adam McEwen, Josephine Meckseper, and Sterling Ruby is included.
Sterling Ruby, 99/MK, 2017. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer

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Adam McEwen
I Think I’m in Love
January 13–June 4, 2017
Aspen Art Museum, Colorado
www.aspenartmuseum.org
Adam McEwen is known for works that engage viewers with a dark yet poignant sense of humor. His recent sculptural works include a life-size coffin-carrier fabricated from solid graphite and deployed air bags cast in concrete. This exhibition marks the artist’s first solo museum show in the United States. He was the Aspen Art Museum’s 2016–17 Distinguished Artist in Residence.
Photo by Tony Prikryl