Current Exhibition
Bitter Harvest
New Work by
Lauren Frances Adams
March 12- April 2, 2010
Opening BBQ and conversation: Friday, March 12, 6-9pm
Closing party: Friday, April 2, 7-9pm
Bitter Harvest explores Lauren Adams’ research into Afghani poppy fields and the relationship between American military operations, the Taliban, and civilian farmers in Afghanistan’s ‘Golden Crescent’. Adams has documented images published about issues surrounding these topics in popular media, and will re-inscribe the found narratives in a site specific painting on the gallery’s interior walls, resulting in a claustrophobic interior overwhelmed by poppy flowers and human figures. The visual pattern evident in the painting is inspired by contemporary war reporting and traditional wallpaper and ornament design, which visually seduces the viewer while simultaneously assaulting them with hallucinatory images of poppy cultivation in relationship to the international drug trade, the American military incursion in Afghanistan, and the cycle of economic underdevelopment in rural farm areas of the Golden Crescent.
Lauren Adams is an artist residing in St. Louis, Missouri, whose work over the past several years has commonly focused on the relationship between agriculture, class, politics, and labor. An upcoming exhibition at Cosign Projects in St. Louis will feature three textile paintings she has created in the form of flags, reflecting similar work to that at Royal NoneSuch. In Adams’ past works, the artist uses popular historical forms of ornament and craft design, such as the toile du juoy pattern which inspired Bitter Harvest to comment upon contemporary political and social issues. Adams recently attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and is scheduled for an upcoming residency at the Cite in Paris, France. She currently teaches painting at Washington University in St. Louis.
Erica Gangsei
May 7-30, 2010
Opening party: Friday, May 7, 2010
Look here for past exhibitions