Artist Statement

Despite my best efforts to just sit down and paint, I instead wipe, wipe out, erase, rub, paint over, and wipe again. For now, no other way of working feels right, even though it often feels like I go around in circles. It’s like trying to wipe the fuzz out of my eyes in order to see more clearly. Yet, in erasing and rubbing back and in the absence of marks I begin to find presence on the canvas, and, in the absence of subject matter a feeling of clarity begins to emerge. It seems that it is only through throwing out the picture that the picture becomes visible. This wiping-out, reductive way of working, as uncomfortable as it is, is worthwhile in that it opens up the possibility of seeing things from multiple points of view.

På tross av alle gode intensjoner om bare å sette meg ned for å male, ender jeg alltid opp med å stryke bort, gni, viske, skrape, male over og stryke bort igjen.
Selv om det føles som å gå i sirkel, er det for tiden ingen annen arbeidsmåte som gir meg mening.
Det er som å gni rusk ut av øynene for å se bedre.
Mens jeg jobber meg bakover ved å viske ut spor og merker, begynner jeg å kjenne et nærvær på lerretet.
I fraværet av konkret innhold  oppstår det en følelse av klarhet.
Det er akkurat som om det å forkaste bildet, gjør at det kommer til syne.
Denne reduktive, nedskjærende og litt ukomfortable måten å jobbe på er verdt strevet, idet den åpner opp muligheten for å betrakte tilværelsen fra forskjellige synsvinkler.

Oversatt av Kirsten Haabeth

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Bio

Mel Adamson is a painter currently working both figuratively and non-figuratively. Her sources of inspiration range from everyday events to time spent in nature. Adamson received her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley where she was awarded the San Francisco Foundation Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fine Arts Fellowship. She has exhibited locally and internationally. Her paintings are included in public and private collections in the US and Europe. Adamson has taught at San Jose State University, California College of the Arts, and Stanford University. Adamson lives in Oslo, Norway. She is originally from Berkeley, CA and maintains a studio in Richmond, California.

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CV

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2020

• Nine Drawings, Norsk Taiji Senter, Oslo, Norway

2019

• Missing Information, The Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA

2009-12

• Recent Paintings, From Above, 5th Floor, California Public Utilities Commission, San Francisco, CA

2005

• Cycles Interrupted, 1st St Gallery, Humboldt State University, Eureka, CA

2000

• Paintings, (Joint Exhibition, jury award winners) Berkeley Art Center
• Paintings, 160 Spear St. San Francisco, CA
• Extremes In Light (Joint Show), Fifth Season Art Gallery, Tracy, CA

1998

• Paintings. Burlex Corp and The Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA

1993

• Recent Paintings, Contemporary Realist Gallery, San Francisco

1989

• Introductions, Contemporary Realist Gallery, San Francisco

• Paintings, Hoffman Gallery, Emeryville, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020

• From the Studio V, The Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA

2019

• Face to Face, The Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA

2015-19

• Croquis Utstillingen H12 Galleri, Hegdehaugsveien 12, Oslo, Norway

2012

• Kala-fornia, Invitational, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
• Berkeley Art Center Invitational, Berkeley, CA

2010

• Figuring Out The Figure, SRJC Art Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA
• Ten Artists Story and Vision, Intention and Expression, CA Bank of Commerce, Lafayette, CA
• Invitational: Collect!, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
• Group Exhibition, Pictorial Faculty, San Jose State University, CA
• College Preparatory School 50th Anniversary Silent Auction Exhibition, Oakland, CA

2007-13

• SFMMA Artist Gallery, Annual Warehouse Sale, San Francisco, CA

2008

• Clouds, Ninth Street Gallery, Newport OR

2007

• Anniversary Show, Heritage Bank, San Jose, CA

2006

• Group Show, Island Museum of Art, Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA

2004, 5, 6

• Silent Auction, Invitational, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA

2003-15

• Invitational Exhibition, President’s Office, San Jose State University

2003

• Daily Dramas, Currents and Undercurrents, Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
• Landscape: East Coast, West Coast, Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, IL
• Unbounded Vistas: Artists Interpret the Northern California Landscape, Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA
• Pictorial Faculty Exhibition, Thompson Gallery, San Jose State University

Education

1987

• Master of Fine Arts, University of California, Berkeley

1983

• Fifth Yr. Graduate Certificate in Ptg., University of California, Santa Cruz

1982

• Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts, University of California, Santa Cruz

1979-80

• Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts, Paris, France

Awards and Fellowships

2001

• Nominee, Wallace A. Gerbode Visual Arts Award

1989

• National Jury Prize, Berkeley Art Center, Elmer Bischoff, Juror

1987

• Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fine Arts Fellowship, San Francisco Foundation.
• Harry Lord Ford Award, Practice of Art, UC Berkeley
• Anne Bremer Award, Practice of Art, UC Berkeley

Teaching

2011

• Pixar Animation Studios, Figure Drawing, Emeryville, CA

1999-2012

• San Jose State University, Painting, Figure Painting, Figure Drawing
• California College of the Arts, (extension), Dynamic Figure Drawing

1992

• Stanford University, Beginning and Intermediate Painting
• California College of the Arts, Urban Landscape Painting

1989-90

• East Carolina University, Greenville, Visiting Artist