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Showing posts from June 26, 2022

Dean Adams, b. 1966, Ceramic Artist

Dean Adams works with visual satire, people who view his work are not quite sure what to do with political or sexual related art. For years Adams has created ceramic sculptures that consist of the male anatomy sculpted and conjoined to a bird’s body. Far from lurid, they take on a sense of humor with titles that entertain. The Montana ceramic artist seems to operate on a sliding scale between kitsch/whimsy, cultural attitudes on sexuality, and highbrow Dada/Surrealism. On the far end of the scale, his works look straight out of a dime store, figurines that are colorful, look inexpensive as if they were produced right after World War II. In the center there is a salute to Freud’s complex understanding of sexual expression. Then on the other far end, the works take on Dada/Surrealist origins, when he combines figures with penises and penis heads. Another element happens within the range of Adams' works, shock artistry. For those who know his work can just imagine a naïve grandmot...