MADNESS SURROUNDS US

August 1 - November 1, 2021

Dab Art Co. is pleased to announce the online exclusive, MADNESS SURROUNDS US. A solo exhibition of paintings by Adrian Hatfield.

MADNESS SURROUNDS US is a series of ethereal paintings that combine elements from art history, illustration, and pop culture. His intent is for the pieces to be, on one hand, funny, absurd and unnerving, but also poignant and strangely beautiful.

Adrian makes sure that each painting is carefully thought out and planned beforehand. He first makes a digital image of his abstract beginning before inserting and arranging various collected graphic imagery. He then screens graphic images onto the actual painting surface, and then the various fragments of his intangible artworks are painted into the piece. The purpose of each painting is to include a startling mix of quoted images, torn from other contexts which is then abridged into something new: an assemblage of paintings with reference to culture, science and religion. The result of this process is a celestial painting that is imposing and mysterious.

My work, consisting of painting, collage, and sculpture, samples and recombines art historical imagery, specifically from the industrial revolution and Romantic era, as well as scientific imagery to reflect on current and imminent environmental concerns.

Thematically, it examines the consequences of mass extinction events, where enormous global reduction of animal species occurs in a geologically short period of time. These events decimate the global ecosystem. They also, however, create under-populated niches, which lead to an explosive evolution of new species.

As I explore this dualistic theme through the remodeling of art-historical and scientific imagery, the resultant pieces are mournful, unnerving, and yet oddly hopeful.

-Adrian Hatfield