Works Exhibited
About
Gagosian is pleased to present RECESS, an exhibition of new works by Derrick Adams at its gallery in London’s Burlington Arcade.
The exhibition features one of the artist’s Funtime Unicorn Spring Riders (2022), which reimagine a motif first developed by Adams in the Floater series of paintings depicting Black people at leisure. Several other Funtime Unicorn Spring Riders are installed along the length of Burlington Arcade. Embodying the themes of play and leisure that are at the center of Adams’s practice, these interactive sculptures may be ridden, transforming the historic space through an invitation to engage.
RECESS also includes Braving the Path (2023), a new painting of a child playing on a Funtime Unicorn. Fully immersed in imaginative play, the boy riding the unicorn is composed with gently faceted curves, in contrast to the angular lines behind him. In the background are the silhouettes of the National Museum of African America History & Culture and the Washington Monument, placing the scene and offering resonant symbolism.
The video Funtime Unicorn: Ruby Rides through Four Seasons (2023) is an animation realized in collaboration with the graphic design studio the Channel and narrated by Aya Burns and Cleo Reed with music by Dave Guy of the Roots. An affirmation of childhood wonder and creativity, the video relates the imagined passage of a year experienced by a unicorn in an urban playground and across cosmic dreamscapes.
On the occasion of the exhibition, Adams will also take over the Gagosian Shop on the gallery’s ground floor with new merchandise designed by the artist with imagery of recreation, self-reflection, and sweet treats.
#DerrickAdams
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2023
The Fall 2023 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Derrick Adams’s Everything and a Ring (2023) on its cover.
Come As You Are: Derrick Adams
Jewels Dodson visited artist Derrick Adams at his New York studio as he prepared for an exhibition of new paintings in Los Angeles in the fall of 2023. She reports on these works and on Adams’s embrace of joy, humor, and contradiction.
In Conversation
Amanda Williams and Derrick Adams
On the occasion of her exhibition Amanda Williams: CANDYLADYBLACK at Gagosian in New York, the artist spoke with artist Derrick Adams about the way she uses color as a tool to examine the complex ways in which race informs our assignment of value to physical, social, and conceptual spaces.
News
Shop Takeover
Derrick Adams
RECESS
Opening reception: Tuesday, October 10, 6–8pm
October 2–November 6, 2023
Gagosian Shop, London
Derrick Adams is taking over the Gagosian Shop in London’s Burlington Arcade with a selection of new merchandise designed with imagery of recreation, self-reflection, and sweet treats. Offerings include T-shirts adorned with icons from his paintings as well as a poster produced in conjunction with Come as You Are, his exhibition at Gagosian, Beverly Hills. The Fall 2023 issue of Gagosian Quarterly, with a cover image by Adams and a feature by Jewels Dodson reflecting on the artist’s recent works, is also available.
The Shop takeover accompanies RECESS, an exhibition of new work in the gallery upstairs that includes a painting and a video whose imagery relate to Adams’s interactive sculptures Funtime Unicorn Spring Riders (2022), which are installed in the gallery and along the length of the historic arcade.
Derrick Adams takeover at the Gagosian Shop, London, 2023. Artwork © Derrick Adams Studio. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
