Christopher Adams: Natural Selection

New York Gallery

Boston-based Christopher Adams presents more than 700 unique wall-mounted ceramic objects in his first exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery. Lush and phantasmagorical, these exquisitely crafted specimens showcase the exuberant freedom of a self-taught artist.

Adams’ art plays on the concept in biological speciation called “adaptive radiation,” in which a pioneering organism enters a relatively untapped environment, reproducing profusely while differentiating rapidly and extensively. At the same time, the organism never departs too dramatically from the original form.

While each of Adams’ sculptures starts with a common structure, they evolve into uniquely sensuous and ornate forms and finishes. Some are broad and brightly-colored like the brilliant bird-wing butterflies of the Old World tropics; others are mottled and shrunken or morphologically reduced. Some appear floral, others cephalopodal, and others have no identifiable counterpart in nature.

Christopher Adams was born in Medford, MA and began experimenting with ceramics as a teenager. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard where he majored in organismic and evolutionary biology. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Art and Design in New York.