Adam Mars: Public Privates @ Gusford Gallery

For its inaugural show, GUSFORD | los angeles is pleased to present the work of Los Angeles-based artist Adam Mars. Public Privates is the first solo exhibition of Mars’ large-scale, mixed media brick paintings, which expose contemporary media-obsessed culture and address the collapse of privacy into a larger public forum.

Appropriating aesthetic elements from an urban art context, Mars’ paintings blend veracious humor with the sensibilities of California pop art. Focusing solely on the elements of color, text and surface, these works use simplicity and incisiveness to resonate with the viewer. Their relationship to viral communication is evident in Mars’ clever phrases, which strive for a sense of familiar originality. Overlaying the monochromatic brick, stenciled witticisms such as Retardashians, I Loved You, then I Googled You, and Good Lay, Bad Texter, cover a diversity of topics while remaining truly relatable to a massive audience connected by shared social experiences.

Engaging within the context of celebrity culture, but also looking to the ubiquitous nature of social media, these paintings, like communication in the digital era, are grounded in the necessity of brevity. Mars’ works astutely examine what it means to live in a rapidly evolving society and ultimately drive to question the ambiguity of the future.

All in 140 characters or less.

Kelsey Lee Offield (AR '09) is the owner and director of Gusford Gallery. See some of Kelsey's own work at kelseyoffield.com.