Derrick Adams

"The work I try to make is a testament 

of perseverance." 

—Derrick Adams

Derrick Adams was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned his BFA from Pratt Institute, and his MFA from Columbia University.

His body of work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations, often exploring the influence of popular culture on the formation of self-image.

At age 10, Adams won a citywide student art competition called “My Heritage, Myself.” The prize was lunch with the mayor and the display of his work

in City Hall.

Adams’s work is rooted in a Deconstructivist style, often fragmenting, layering, and manipulating structure and form. 

To honor the 25th anniversary of Jay-Z’s debut album Reasonable Doubt,Adams created a one-of-one NFT entitled Heir to the Throne. 

In partnership with RxArt, an influential nonprofit that brings blue chip art into hospitals across America, Adams created a series of whimsical and colorful murals in the Pediatric Emergency rooms at Harlem Hospital Center.

His work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, 

among others.