Adam Opet

January 23–March 7, 2020
Three works installed on white walls in a small room. To the far left is a small work in black and white ink on wood depicting a bust in profile with a stylized square head.

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020.

Two works installed on adjacent walls in the corner of a room. Both depict stylized rectangular heads in profile, with a thin forked tongue emerging from an open mouth.

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020.

Four works installed on walls in a small room. On the back wall is a bulletin board case in which twenty four uniformly sized drawings are installed in a four by six grid.

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020.

A drawing in black ink on a long, narrow piece of wood that has been painted white of a nude figure standing on a skull, rendered with bold line work in a cartoon-like fashion.

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020.

A drawing in black ink on brown paper of a square, stylized head in profile with two mouths, baring their teeth. The head is detailed with various line patterns.

Adam Opet

Untitled, 2017 – 2020.

Ink on found record sleeve

7 × 7 in.

A black and white illustration on wood of a person’s head in profile, detailed with various patterns. Their mouth is slightly open, and two long, thin forked tongues flow out.

Adam Opet

Untitled, n.d.

Acrylic and ink on drawer

17.5 × 32 in.

White Columns is pleased to present a solo exhibition in our ‘Bulletin Board’ project space by the Brooklyn-based artist Adam Opet (b. 1982, San Jose, CA.)

Opet’s installation focuses on his ongoing series of ink drawings made on vintage 45rpm record sleeves (their age and patina suggesting that they might have once housed raw blues, rockabilly, country, or garage recordings.) Informed by a wide range of counter-cultural and musical sources (inc. underground comics, graffiti, metal and punk graphics) Opet’s drawings invariably feature an imagined portrait, typically seen in profile, with each image ‘punctured’ by the die-cut circular ‘void’ of the record sleeve’s central aperture: literally forming a “hole in the head.” With their use of antique paper supports, Opet’s ink drawings conjure up an earlier, analog, pre-digital era: a hard-to-identify time and place populated by a cast of decidedly shady characters and demonic misfits.

Adam Opet’s work has been included in group shows in the Bay Area and in a 2017 solo presentation at New York’s legendary bar Max Fish. He has self-published a number of ‘zines and chap books of his drawings. He currently works at the East 12th Street branch of New York’s iconic Academy Records.

Adam Opet’s exhibition re-launches White Columns ‘Bulletin Board’ project space. ‘The Bulletin Board’ was an initiative of White Columns’ director Matthew Higgs that originally debuted at the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco c. 2003 with projects by Trisha Donnelly, Jim Jocoy and Monte Cazazza, among others. Since 2005 White Columns’ ‘Bulletin Board’ has housed a wide range of projects by artists and writers inc.: Malcolm Mooney, Karl Holmqvist, Josephine Meckseper, Simon Evans, Josh Shaddock, Cynthia Daignault, Matt Keegan, Douglas Blau, Tim Griffin, Ryan Foerster, and Kevin Killian, among many others.

For further information, contact: info@whitecolumns.org

Checklist

Three works installed on white walls in a small room. To the far left is a small work in black and white ink on wood depicting a bust in profile with a stylized square head.
Two works installed on adjacent walls in the corner of a room. Both depict stylized rectangular heads in profile, with a thin forked tongue emerging from an open mouth.
Four works installed on walls in a small room. On the back wall is a bulletin board case in which twenty four uniformly sized drawings are installed in a four by six grid.
A drawing in black ink on a long, narrow piece of wood that has been painted white of a nude figure standing on a skull, rendered with bold line work in a cartoon-like fashion.
A drawing in black ink on brown paper of a square, stylized head in profile with two mouths, baring their teeth. The head is detailed with various line patterns.
A black and white illustration on wood of a person’s head in profile, detailed with various patterns. Their mouth is slightly open, and two long, thin forked tongues flow out.

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020. (Three works installed on white walls in a small room. To the far left is a small work in black and white ink on wood depicting a bust in profile with a stylized square head.)

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020. (Two works installed on adjacent walls in the corner of a room. Both depict stylized rectangular heads in profile, with a thin forked tongue emerging from an open mouth.)

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020. (Four works installed on walls in a small room. On the back wall is a bulletin board case in which twenty four uniformly sized drawings are installed in a four by six grid.)

Adam Opet, installation view, 2020. (A drawing in black ink on a long, narrow piece of wood that has been painted white of a nude figure standing on a skull, rendered with bold line work in a cartoon-like fashion.)

Adam Opet Untitled, 2017 – 2020. Ink on found record sleeve 7 × 7 in. (A drawing in black ink on brown paper of a square, stylized head in profile with two mouths, baring their teeth. The head is detailed with various line patterns.)

Adam Opet Untitled, n.d. Acrylic and ink on drawer 17.5 × 32 in. (A black and white illustration on wood of a person’s head in profile, detailed with various patterns. Their mouth is slightly open, and two long, thin forked tongues flow out.)