Adam Cruces

Adam Cruces is an artist who was born in 1985 (Houston, TX, USA), currently living in Zurich, CH. He received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 2008, and his MFA from Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in 2013.  Within his personal practice, Cruces produces site-specific installations interested in the balance of obligation and recreation, in association with contemporary lifestyles. These are often addressed as contextual factors, in which the work is physically experienced, as well as conceptual factors in relation to spatio-temporal utilization. His work has recently been exhibited at kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, LV; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, IT; Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, DK; Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris, FR; Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal, CH; and Berlin Biennale 9’s Fear of Content.

The project consists of paintings as sculptures. In other words, realistic paintings over the actual objects that are being represented. The objects themselves are mundane items that I found, bought, or used during my stay in Vilnius – things capable of being associated with a contemporary still life – and then painted over. For example, one panting is a Coke can on a Coke can. He matched the red paint as close to the color of the can’s red as possible, then painted over the red parts; I matched the white of the text on the can as close as possible and painted over the text. Other items that served as paintings were a toothbrush, ibuprofen package, AA batteries, cigarette box, and luggage handling receipt. Each object is a scale, 3D painting of itself, that will be presented as part of a solo exhibition at Beautiful Gallery in Chicago this spring.