For Derrick Adams’s sixth solo exhibition with Rhona Hoffman Gallery, the artist created a limited series of mixed media paintings in the artist’s frame as well as a singular functional sculpture. 

Each intimately-sized acrylic and collaged fabric painting is rendered in Adams’s signature color-block geometric style, depicting imagery of jovial children, their puppet compatriots, and contemporary cultural phrases interspersed across each panel. A vibrant palette is paired with multicolored and patterned fabric, adding texture and energy to the cast of fun loving characters invented for this new body of work.

For this exhibition Adams was—now more than ever—eager to revisit previously explored themes centered on the power of media influence, both overt and concealed.

In a setting referencing a range of early educational TV programming, each painting in “…and friends.” features a Black child with a puppet. The imagery serves as counter-propaganda readjusting the lens towards their very real wholesomeness, prior to, or undeterred by society’s inhumane disregard for their innocence.

Each painting is encased in a custom rounded-corner frame topped with a vintage-style dipole (rabbit-ear) antenna, directly referencing an old-school TV set. The frames not only act as a portal for viewership, but also play with the tension of media messaging tactics used to promote diversity and understanding on the surface, with more subtle yet powerful programming layered beneath.

Derrick Adams presented works within this framework in numerous past performances, videos, and installations including: The Big Getaway (2003) Jack Tilton Gallery, NY; Me and My Imaginary Friends (2004) Triple Candie, NY; Open House: Working in Brooklyn (2004) Brooklyn Museum; Greater New York (2005) MoMA PS1; I'm Smoke; You’re Mirror (2005) Participant Inc, NY; Anew, PERFORMA (2005) Participant Inc, NY; Sometimes I Just Don’t Feel Like Myself (2006) Momenta Arts, Brooklyn; The Resurrection of Roosevelt Franklin and The Channel (2012) BAM, Brooklyn; REALITY BITES: Story Time with That Cat Pat and The Real (2013) as part of Reading List: Artists' Selections from the MoMA Library Collection, MoMA NY; and ON (2016) at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn.