Artist Statement:
Born and raised in South Brooklyn, Adam studied at the Art Student’s League, The High School of Music and Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. His work is constantly being pulled between the greatness of the way Brooklyn used to be with the anticipation of it’s ever changing ways. “Wether it’s through my painting, drawing, printmaking, graphic novel or even tattooing, I always try to express the finer details of the city’s past, peeking out through the continually changing landscape. Sometimes i’ll concentrate on specific urban iconography. Lampposts, bridges, fire hydrants, subways, for example, are ever present in my work. From my more realistic/ impressionistic large scale painting where the streets wind, to the more graphic, cartoony illustration where the buildings appear to have faces, I aim to describe the individual characteristics of the city where i’ve spent most of my life.” His work is inspired by many things including impressionism, the Dutch Masters, Underground comic art and psychedelic poster art of the 60’s, as well as aztec art, and his own short lived graffiti efforts. Upon graduating from RISD (’91) he founded the artist collective Urban Folk Art® Studios in Brooklyn. Funded primarily by their silkscreen studio, they printed for artists, non profits, musicians, along with a variety of clients. The print studio funded the collective’s other endeavor’s such as independent art openings, mural projects, their own t-shirt and merchandise line, as well as personal projects, self publishing underground comics and an assortment of other efforts. By 1999, the printshop was put to bed, and Adam started down a new creative road byapprenticing at a tattoo shop just as the tattoo ban in N.Y. was being lifted. After apprenticing for a year south of Harlem, the shop he was at moved to Boerum Hill. By 2002 he and co worker Willie Paredes were given the option to buy the shop and start their own, and thus Brooklyn Tattoo® was born. Over 15 years later, and 4 moves in the greater Boerum Hill, Carroll gardens Area, they are operating with a great crew with continued accolades. In 2011, a few years after arriving on Smith Street, The storefront next to the shop became vacant. Adam, who had been producing and participating in art shows all over New York at various venues , decided to take the space and open up the Urban Folk Art® Gallery. He curated and participated in a variety of shows, solo and group, showcasing a variety of work by emerging, established and legendary artists. A main focus was on legendary old school graffiti artists, but shows also included painting, illustration, photography, comic book art, and printmaking. The gallery ran until 2017, when Brooklyn Tattoo® moved up the block and it became impossible to run the gallery, shop, and keep up with his own personal artistic endeavors. Adam now continues to paint, illustrate, tattoo, printmake, make comics, curate, produce merchandise, and make art on many levels in many mediums. He is open to all creative inquiries, commissions, and collaborations.
