AN AMERICAN ARTIST DISTILLS THE UNSETTLING SPIRIT OF OUR TIME INTO IMAGES THAT ARE AT ONCE POTENT AND ELUSIVE

by Edward M. Gómez

Bill Adams is a New York-based artist who works in various media and genres; his most recent creations have captured the spirit of the present moment in the United States and around the world in colorful, clever confections — paintings and enamel-painted, porcelain figurines — that simultaneously convey a sense of urgent, socio-political critique and an engaged observer’s shoulder-shrugging, that’s-the-way-it-goes recognition of the foibles — and dangers — that are such inherent features of the human comedy.

Adams (Instagram: @billadams9), who was born in 1957, earned a master’s degree in fine art from the University of Indiana. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and today he divides his time between New York City and nearby Long Island.