Shane McAdams

Yes, and…

May 8, 2021 - July 17, 2021
Artist reception June 26, 2 - 5 pm
Artist talk June 26, 3 pm

OS Projects is pleased to present Yes, and…, a series of new paintings by Shane McAdams.  The exhibit opens on Saturday, May 8 and continues through Saturday, July 17.  Although there will be no opening reception on May 8, the gallery plans to host an artist reception on a later date.  Masks are required to enter the gallery.

2020 was a year of anxiety and restriction, and for many artists the studio became crucial as an alternative source of freedom.  McAdams’ body of work marks an indulgence in the creative sanctuary of the studio during the pandemic.  He used the period of lockdown to reset, lose control, break continuity and find a separate freedom that couldn’t be found in the world beyond.

The phrase “yes, and” is a proposition with many optimistic and open-ended associations.  In improv comedy and group therapy, the phrase refers to the idea that one should meet another’s thought with permission rather than restriction, opening opportunities for spontaneous discovery and interpersonal connection.  The phrase also recalls Dore Ashton’s biography of Philip Guston, Yes, but… in which the titular language is embellished to emphasize Guston’s self-critical, revisory process of art making.

Finally, the works in Yes, and… invoke the aphorism by Jasper Johns that an artist should “take an object, do something to it, and do something else to it.”  After 10 months of wild, spontaneous creation, the final works in this show reflect that “something else”: the “and…” that ultimately gives the wild extremes of creative energy refinement and closure.

About the Artist

Shane McAdams is an artist, writer, curator, educator and papa residing in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.  His artwork has been exhibited at Allegra LaViola Gallery (New York); Marlborough Gallery (New York); Elizabeth Leach Gallery (Portland, OR); Scream Gallery (London); ArtisTree (Hong Kong); Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR); Haggerty Museum of Art (Milwaukee); Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI) and other venues.  His work has been reviewed in Vogue Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Observer, The Huffington Post and The Village Voice.  He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and Marian University.

McAdams is a three-time Creative Capital, Andy Warhol Writer’s Grant finalist, and his writing appeared regularly in the Brooklyn Rail from 2002 to 2012.  He has also contributed to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and currently writes for the Shepherd Express, for which he received the Visual Arts Achievement in Arts Writing award from the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Letters.  In addition to writing and painting, McAdams is a co-partner in REAL TINSEL, an art space located in Milwaukee’s South Side.

Installation Images

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