A Living Organism

The E.M. Adams Gallery sets up shop at a new location in New Hope, Pa.

By: Matt Smith
   Among his many varied pursuits, painter and sculptor Ed Adams plays the role of gallery owner, having operated the E.M. Adams Gallery in Lambertville and New Hope, Pa., as a showcase for his vibrant, abstract work for the past 13 years.
   On July 1, Mr. Adams moved that gallery from New Hope’s Union Square to an 18th-century building at 19 N. Main St. in the riverside borough. Originally a residence, the 1,200-square-foot space was most recently a clothing store and, before that, a photographer’s shop and studio. Mr. Adams will celebrate the grand opening of the new E.M. Adams Gallery with a reception Oct. 22 and an open house Oct. 23.
   Mr. Adams says he "loved" the Union Square gallery, which he designed, but "this particular space opportunity opened up and I took advantage of it because it’s clearly a more visible location. It’s a larger space so I could do more diverse work and larger pieces, more pieces, and I could also do interesting things that complement my work and involve other people."
   Those complementary activities take place in a converted garage adjacent to the main gallery space. Companies have already held corporate meetings there, and Mr. Adams also uses it for workshops in his self-taught style, which he calls "contact painting" because he uses towels and cloths instead of brushes. Further, the New Hope/Lambertville chapter of Men Mentoring Men, the nonprofit organization he founded, meets there twice a month. He plans exhibits of other artists’ works as well, in addition to the Don Jordan sculptures and Jeff Greene wood tables already on display in the main E.M. Adams Gallery.
   "I believe that a gallery is best used if it’s more than just paintings and sculpture in the place," Mr. Adams says. "It becomes a live organism. To that end, I’ve had the opportunity to rent this space, which I call the Back Room at the E.M. Adams Gallery, and to jury work I think needs to be seen."
   The Back Room currently features an exhibit of Mr. Adams’ works that showed earlier this fall at the Chapin School in Princeton called "The Watercolor Zoo." The paintings were a big hit with the Chapin School students, although when Mr. Adams did a demonstration for a gathering of kindergarten and first-grade students, a pair of young boys didn’t seem initially impressed.
   "I asked (all the kids) to stand by their favorite painting," he says, "and they distributed themselves pretty nicely, except for two boys who stood in the middle of the room. So, I went around and talked to the groups at the individual paintings. Eventually, I got to the two boys in the middle of the room and said, ‘Don’t you guys have a favorite painting?’ Real defiantly they said, ‘No, because we like them all.’ When the other kids heard them say that, they all came down and surrounded them and said, ‘WE like them all.’ I said, ‘Ed, you’re in a moment here.’"
   Mr. Adams is showing four new pieces at the grand opening — a mix of acrylic and watercolor paintings. "One is a very simple dog face, and there’s a landscape, and then there are what I refer to as my ‘mythic pieces’ that tap into mythology. I also have a psychology background (he’s a licensed psychologist with a practice in Somerville) and a lot of it taps into that — the archetypal elements of dream, dream work, and things of that nature."
   He frequently gets commissions for paintings, which are more difficult, he says, because of his non-representational artistic process and style.
   "With a commission, people know my stuff already, so they’re looking for something in that genre," Mr. Adams says. "For example, I do people or I do animals, but they know that what they’re getting isn’t a Seabiscuit-like license of themselves or their animal, but they’ll get an interpretation of the spirit. That’s hard, because very often I’ll approach that from the sort of representational perspective and then I have to loosen up around that and really get into that ‘letting go, letting go, letting go’ until I get what I want."
   Although he’s busy with other pursuits, Mr. Adams paints nearly every day in the 20-by-20-foot studio of his Lambertville home (and in his backyard when the weather permits). He’s quite prolific, although he doesn’t exhibit outside his own gallery as much lately because he can’t meet the demand for other shows.
   But, he says of the E.M. Gallery, "This is the centerpiece of my work."
The grand opening of the E.M. Adams Gallery, 19 N. Main St., New Hope, Pa., will include a reception Oct. 22, 6-9 p.m., and an open house Oct. 23, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Gallery hours: Mon., Thurs. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, call (215) 862-5667. On the Web: www.adamsart.com