TERRA: A Solo Show Curated by Multidisciplinary Artist Derrick Adams,Featuring Works by V Walton
Ongoing through December 15
@ Swann House Gallery at Ulysses in Baltimore
Multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams announces the second show in “Beautiful Decay,” his conceptual curatorial project: “Terra,” a solo exhibition from Baltimorean artist V Walton. Opening October 3, the ten week-long exhibition will be on view at Swann House Gallery, a rotating exhibition space in Baltimore adjacent to Ulysses, an Ash hotel.
“Beautiful Decay,” as envisioned by Adams, is a series of artist interventions and installations that respond to the state of the interior and exterior of Swann House, through direct and indirect relationships to material, form and application. The series will tap into the local community to highlight the immense talent and artistry present in Baltimore.
“V Walton’s work and overall installation transforms the space in a way that makes the viewer more aware of the organic nature of the aging interior. Comparable to our lived experience as humans. What makes us and what is left behind when we are gone? The earthy materials that make up the work and that are also incorporated throughout heighten our sensibility in understanding decay as it allows us to make peace with our own impermanence” said Derrick Adams, Curator.
This second exhibition “Terra” features the sculptural work of V Walton, a series of ceramic and soil-based figurative sculptures. Trained as a figurative ceramicist, Walton’s practice has shifted from heavily ceramic based to a more biodegradable, organic focused composition. At various scales, Walton’s works show in abstracted vessel forms and naturalistic representation. They pivot between creating variations of bodily forms, some that will exist in a state of permanence, and others meant to decompose – playing with blurring the lines between what we understand about the body by morphing into something else, something less human, something reminiscent of flora.
Answering questions such as what it means to be human and what it means for Black people to reconnect with terra, “Terra” seeks to remedy a divide between the human body and nature, calling to Black people to reimagine a relationship with the organic. Walton works with different clays, types of soil, plant life, and sustainably found wood to create installations that feel alive. Grouped as a community or in more intimate pairings, these figures and organic forms wind their way through the space. Meanwhile other figures will live within an installation of organics, involving soil, tree roots, and similar materials.
The works overall respond to the interior space at its present condition. Rich in texture as well as character. Piling and exposing its vulnerability due to the natural elements all around. Representation of the body in juxtaposition with the space mirroring one another alluding to fragmentation of the self.
The exhibition will be on view Thursday, October 3rd through Sunday, December 15th by appointment.
Swann House is a new event space and extension of Ulysses, located in the historic townhouse next door to the hotel. The parlor floor of the brownstone has been reimagined as a space for gathering and celebrations, welcoming parties of up to 85 guests, while Swann House Gallery takes residence on the second floor.
ARTIST STATEMENT
When we expand past our human experience as being paramount and turn towards nature, that is where healing begins. There, we deconstruct the self imposed hierarchy that we have inflicted onto our environment and realize that we are an extension of it – and even more so, perhaps the most finite and divisive factor within this ecosystem.
Our reaction to the organic becomes a reflection of us. My work expounds upon restoring this relationship, reflecting the bounty and decay – growth and chaos that co-exist. When we are not limited by an imagination centered in extraction, we begin to live in a way that is regenerative and reciprocal with the natural world. We are a part of this framework and yet nature is infinitely beyond our comprehension.
