Ever Gold [Projects, The Hole, and McEvoy Ranch present:

 

Adam Parker Smith
Oneiroi

July 22 – August 29, 2020

 

Ever Gold [Projects] and The Hole are pleased to present Oneiroi, an outdoor sculpture exhibition by Adam Parker Smith, in collaboration with the McEvoy Ranch in Northern California.

 

 

 

 

In Greek mythology, dreams were occasionally described and deployed through dream personifications called Oneiroi.  Oneiroi were beings sent forth, often with an agenda from their creator, to visit the dreamer in an ambiguous state between sleep and consciousness.  Adam Parker Smith shares some of the inspiration for this project below:

 

“In a recent dream, I found myself walking through a dry valley filled with totemic, humanoid statues made from earth and clay.  None of these sculptures were my own, nor that of any contemporary artist I’m aware of.  They seemed instead like cultural artifacts of perhaps another dimension or something just beyond my reach, an alternate historiography of sculptural practices.  Some works were vividly colored while others carried the patina and dusty quality of ruins.  The humanoid features were also in varying states of discernibility, some newly rendered, others crumbling and non-descript.  Yet, none of the statues competed for space or attention, they all just appeared together and each was wonderful.   Although I didn’t understand the intentions of their creators, I felt connected to each work with a distant, de ja vu type of familiarity ”

 

Oneiroi is Smith’s reflection on familiar images taking new form in dream-like states.  The odd juxtapositions and combinations that occur in our subconscious are accessed here to creatively inform decisions of the conscious mind.  The valley of McEvoy Ranch is the setting for a series of sculptures designed before by the artist and seen before by the viewer.  There are variations in this installation as to how these works actually exist and interact that is both familiar and askew.

 

The artist also draws a parallel to our current socio-cultural experience where much of the world’s activity is on pause or altered, conscious but not entirely.  There is continuity with ordinary behaviors but visually things are changed as masks and unusually spaced clusters of humanity define the landscape.  Art continues to be presented through exhibitions and art fairs, though they occur mostly digitally, allowing for very odd if not fantastical presentations – an unreal time. Smith’s sculptures hinge on this reconstitution of familiar imagery via birthday balloons, pool floats and other quotidian objects that are the substrate of his sculptures. In this project, Smith presents these sculptures in a novel context depicting them as memories that are familiar but impossible to grasp.

 

*In solidarity with ongoing social movements, 10% of all sales from this exhibition will be donated to ACLU’s Voting Rights Project and the Castanea Fellowship.

 

About Adam Parker Smith

Adam Parker Smith is a New York based sculptor. He attended Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.  His work has been shown widely in the USA as well as internationally in galleries and museums including, Urbis, Manchester, England, Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery, Luxembourg, the Brooklyn Museum, Derek Eller, New York, The Hole, New York, Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Galerie Sho Contemporary, Tokyo, the Times Museum, Guangzhou, China, Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, Austria, and the Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE. Smith’s work has been written about in, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Art in America, The Village Voice, ArtForum.com, Modern Painters, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker and The New York Post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Ever Gold [Projects]

Founded in 2009, Ever Gold [Projects] exhibits emerging and mid-career international artists. Originally located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood in a space formerly occupied by a pawn shop/gold teeth fabricator, Ever Gold Gallery was an artist run project space, which transitioned into a commercial gallery in January 2013. In January 2016, the gallery was renamed Ever Gold [Projects] and is now located in the main Minnesota Street Project building in the Dogpatch—San Francisco’s new and rapidly evolving arts district. Ever Gold [Projects] is owned and directed by its founder Andrew McClintock.

 

While the focus of the gallery has always been contemporary emerging and mid-career American artists working in a wide range of media, Ever Gold [Projects] has developed a few consistent directions in its programming: an international focus on emerging art including solo and group exhibitions by artists from Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, and a historically-leaning interest in the avant garde (past exhibitions include Takis, Jay DeFeo, Roy de Forest, Kazuo Shiraga, and a Gutai survey).

 

 

About The Hole

The Hole is a contemporary art gallery run by Kathy Grayson. Opened July of 2010, our 3800 sq. ft. storefront on the Bowery borders the Lower East Side and NoLIta neighborhoods of Manhattan. The Hole presents monthly solo and group exhibitions with a focus on emerging art and thematic group exhibitions. We represent more than fifteen artists from America and abroad, and have exhibited over 200 more. Often two exhibitions run simultaneously in our space while works by gallery artists are available in our rear showroom.

 

In between exhibitions we host performances, events and special projects across disciplines to support collaboration and the downtown artist community.

 

 

About McEvoy Ranch

McEvoy Ranch is a 550-acre working, organic ranch, committed to good land stewardship and sustainable farming practices. Currently in their 30th year making the highest quality, award-winning, estate Extra Virgin Olive Oils, small lot wines, and culinary products. Located 30 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the rolling hills of Marin County, now open for wine and olive oil tastings by reservation.