Fashion designer, photographer, sculptor, painter, the list goes on: the multi-hyphenate Derrick Adams' new exhibition opens at Luxembourg & Dayan in London on 10 February, presenting a collection of portraits from his Beauty World series. The works challenge the cultural conventions of human form, particularly black female empowerment. The geometric style in the portraits reflects patterns of African fashion and design and the hairstyles mimic those of the beauty salons in his hometown in Brooklyn. In his painting, prints, sculpture and drawings, Adams explores the intersection of race in an effort to redefine blackness and race for our times.
Adams’s work is now in the permanent collections of the Museum Of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts and the Birmingham Museum Of Art and his upcoming show at Luxembourg & Dayan will be his first display in the UK. It will also notably coincide with exhibitions of his work at Frieze LA and the Hudson River Museum, New York. Read on to find out more about Adams, even his go-to everyday outfit…