Artist: Jim Adams

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles presents Jim Adams: Flight of Mirrors, the artist's second solo exhibition with the gallery.

The paintings in Flight of Mirrors continue Jim Adams’ long-standing exploration of portraiture and mythology, as he reimagines himself within landscapes and interiors that merge past and present. Created over the past six years during the pre- and post-Covid period, but also including self-portraits from the mid-1990s and 2000s, Adams sparks a dialogue across history, identity, and social change, drawing from his deep engagement with history and current events to reinterpret timeless narratives for our contemporary world.

Central to Adams' work is the relationship between memory and knowledge. Flight, a recurring motif throughout his six-decade career, becomes both a metaphor and a means of reflection. Depictions of mythological deities serve as a meditation on historical amnesia and ignorance, examining how lessons from the past are often disregarded. Symbols of profound injustices, such as Canada’s Head Tax certificates, the Komagata Maru incident, and the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, are interwoven into his compositions, confronting viewers with struggles that persist today in Canada and globally.

Adams’ work is deeply personal, intertwining historical and autobiographical narratives. His paintings are rich with symbolism, representing the people, events, and experiences that have shaped his life. Over time, his self-portraits have evolved from introspective studies into expressive, multi-layered explorations of both individual and collective memory. By positioning himself at the center of these narratives, Adams not only examines his own identity but also invites viewers to reflect on their place within the broader tapestry of time.

Jim Lowell Adams (b. 1943, Philadelphia, PA) lives and works in White Rock, British Columbia, CA. Adams received his MA from the University of Pennsylvania (1968) and BFA from Temple University (1965). Selected exhibitions include Vancouver Special: Disorientations and Echo (2021), the triennial presented at the Vancouver Art Gallery; The Irretrievable Moment (2017), a retrospective presented at The Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey and The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford; Mythic Sketches at the Newton Cultural Centre, Surrey; Re: Mix at the Surrey Art Gallery; and Tribute: The Art of African Canadian Artists at the Peel Art Gallery Museum & Archives in Brampton, ON, and the Mississauga Art Gallery in Mississauga, ON. In addition, he has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at the Amelia Douglas Gallery, New Westminster, BC; Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, ON; Richmond Art Centre, Richmond, BC; A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON; Metro Hall, Toronto; The Berkeley Centre, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Peterson Library, University of Connecticut, West Haven, CT; and numerous other venues.

Jim Adams’ works are included in the collections of The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC; The Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC; Kenneth Montague/The Wedge Collection, Toronto, ON; Tricon, Toronto, ON; Beth Rudin De Woody Collection/The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, FL; Tuskegee Airmen National Museum, Detroit, MI; International Women's Air and Space Museum, Cleveland, OH; The United States Air Force Collection, New York; Kozlekdesi Museum, Budapest, HR; as well as numerous private collections in British Columbia; Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Washington, DC; New York, NY; Princeton, NJ; Wake Forest, NC; Parma, IT; Rome, IT; Lausanne, Switzerland; London, UK; Gravesend, Kent, UK; Pittenween, Scotland; and Budapest, HR.