Adam McCauley is a multidisciplinary artist. His work encompasses collage, painting, and everything in between. Each discipline informs and influences each other.
“I try not to force things to happen but to just allow things to happen naturally in the studio. This takes place by being present everyday with the work, being around it, being immersed in it. Each work evolves beyond the last and each work adds new elements to the conversation.” – Adam McCauley
1. Describe your work in 15 words or less.
Layered, h, o, symbols, personal, language, texture, text, weird, abstract, dense not really 15 words, but pretty close.
2. Who are some of your influences?
I am interested in just about any artist who has a serious practice. My primary interest is in abstraction, but I really look at any art. I try to have an open mind and a clear head while looking at other art. I also take liberally from any and all artists. With all that being said I am currently looking/ interested in the works of: CyTwombly, Piccasso, Julian Schnabel, Kurt Schwitters, David Ostrowski, Amy Sillman, Molly Zuckerman Hartung, Jaquline Humphiries, Instagram, children’s drawings, and Rebecca Warren. I tend to look at as much contemporary art as I can. I hold a Masters degree in Art History so I tend to look just as much in the past as I do in the present.
One of my biggest influences was a professor I had in college named Bill Morgan. He really taught me what it was to be an artist and how to look at art. He really didn’t teach that much but he was the real first artist I ever met. He made work that was his own and he had his own language towards painting and college.
3. What is the first artwork you recall creating?
When I was kid I drew all the time. My mom always talks about a drawing I made of a frog when I was 4. But I would consider my first real artwork was in college because I made art with the thought process that I have now about and towards art.
4. Do you have a favorite part of painting?
I like all parts of painting from stretching to finishing a work. But if I had to pick it would be when several works start to resolve into something other then pigment and canvas and turns into an artwork. Sometimes this can happen quickly or it can take a long time. I have a tendency to work on a lot of art at one time. I will have collages, paintings, and sculptures all going on at once. The work really does feed it self and I try to put as much as I can into it as possible.
What do you do for fun outside of the studio?
I really try to spend as much time with my family as possible!
Adam lives and works in Duluth MN. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the Midwest is in many private and public collections.
His exhibition, After All These Years I Am Still Here is on view October 8 – November 9, 2019. Join us for a FREE public reception and gallery talk with the artist on October 17th 5 – 6:30 pm
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