February 6-March 1, 2025

Opening: Thursday, February 6th (Pioneer Sq. Art Walk), 5-8PM
Artist Talk & Reception: Saturday, February 8, 1-3PM

This dynamic exhibition of paintings by artist Carol Adelman marks a new chapter in her ongoing exploration of constructed identity, radical empathy, and a fragmented self. As Adelman’s work demonstrates, the boundaries between the self and the external world are anything but fixed. With a painterly approach that is both sensual and aggressive, she stretches traditional forms, challenging viewers to confront the instability of perception and the way images, symbols, and iconographies are deeply shaped by personal experience and cultural forces.

Matthew Kangas, art critic and curator, writes that the titular piece “encapsulates the artist’s unique conglomeration of autobiography, literature, and art history.” For example, Adelman engages directly with an iconic image—Madonna of the Chancellor Rolin by Jan van Eyck—and in her hands, as Kangas notes, “the Old Master picture is topsy-turvy, fair game for a wacky puzzle of shapes and symbols, all the better to enjoy deciphering and to simply behold its rich painterly execution and impeccable composition.”

Adelman’s use of paint as both a liquid and sculptural material speaks to the fluidity of human experience. The marks she makes on the canvas, constantly shifting and building upon one another, mirror the process of self-discovery and the search for meaning in an ever-changing world. In each piece, the act of painting itself becomes a practice of radical empathy, as Adelman “walks within the skin of a person, an object, a space, or a historical practice,” capturing the complexity of each individual moment that defines us.