Biography
Lauren Adams is a painter who resides in Fairmont, West Virginia. She is a graduate of Fairmont State University and West Virginia University, where she holds a BA in Studio Art and a BFA in Visual Art, respectively. While at Fairmont State University, Lauren studied with acclaimed painter Lynn Boggess.
She has shown her work extensively at various venues including EA Gallery in Swainsboro GA, Cooper Gallery in Lewisburg, WV, James Brooks Gallery in Fairmont, WV, The Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia in Charleston and Arts Monongahela in Morgantown, WV. Lauren is a juried artist of Tamarack’s David L. Dickirson Gallery. In 2009, she was juried into the Emerging Artists of West Virginia exhibition at the West Virginia State Museum, where she was awarded Best of Show and a spot in the museum's permanent collection. Recently, Adams exhibited in a two person show titled Brian Ferrell and Lauren Adams: The Aesthetics of Nature at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley. Lauren will be exhibiting her solo exhibition at The Slingluff Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, Redbrick Gallery in Martinsburg, WV and Annex Gallery in Charleston, WV.
Artist Statement
Jagged or water-worn rocks, moss-covered earth, gleaming birch trees, and chameleon rivers of West Virginia are my subjects. I paint the West Virginia of private dwellings beneath fragrant trees enclosed by monoliths and carpeted with strange moss, or the "secret" waters glittering and flowing over smooth rocks, teeming with minnows that I chased as a child. Nature has always been an important component in my work. I thrive on working from life.
The act of painting is central. My process involves a combination of media and approach. It is the dialogue between studio-based practice along with a plein aire experience that interests me and allows for investigation and improvisation. Most of the works are begun with a thin acrylic underpainting or gesture done with a large brush and then completed with a palette knife in oil. I smear, scrape, and thickly layer the oil paint, until the essence of the landscape is found.
Painting in this direct manner is a means to emphasize the importance of experience and reflects a desire to capture the fluidity and power of nature. The works are not images of sweeping vistas, but the views found exploring the interior of West Virginia. They reveal its true character and a feeling of place through semi abstraction. Retained is a relative simplicity of form along with an economy of strokes that are utilized to construct a strong image.
Lauren Adams
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