Terry Adkins: Recital

Combining sculpture and live performance, Terry Adkins’s installations pay tribute to the memories of under-recognized figures in our collective culture, including John Brown, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, and Sojourner Truth to name a few. Adkins’s sculptural works re-purpose and combine a range of found materials, such as fiberglass propellers, wooden coat hangers, parachute fabric, and many varieties of parts of musical instruments. During performances with members of his Lone Wolf Recital Corps, Adkins activates these objects through improvisational playing and singing, spoken word, costumes, and recorded sound.

For Adkins, the recital form is an ideal platform to “recover and reenact the dynamic tenor of the subjects concerned.” In Black Beethoven: Recital in Nine Dominions (2004), Adkins resuscitates the often neglected possibility of Ludwig van Beethoven’s potential Moorish ancestry to, as Adkins explained, “balance the historical ledge.” Sculptures arranged throughout the room-size installation address various aspects of the composer’s life and work, such as Mute, a wall piece made of trumpet and trombone mutes arranged in a grid-like pattern that alludes to deafness or muffled speech. The installation becomes activated during performances in the form of a song cycle. Ornithology: A Recital in Nine Dominions (2009) strives to carve a deeper historical place for Charlie Parker, affectionately known as “Bird” to his contemporaries. Sculptures of taxidermy birds and musical instruments are coupled with performances.

Born in Washington, DC in 1953, Adkins received his BS from Fisk University, MS from Illinois State University, and MFA from the University of Kentucky. Select solo exhibitions of his work include the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York; Projekt Binz 39, Zurich; Sculpture Center, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art; and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. His work has been included at group exhibitions at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Brooklyn Museum of Art; De Young Museum, San Francisco; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; and The Museum of African Art, New York, among others. Adkins currently serves as Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

This survey of the work of Terry Adkins is curated by Ian Berry in collaboration with the artist. The exhibition is available to travel to museums across the country and will be accompanied by a career-spanning monograph with several newly commissioned essays by Charles Gaines, George Lewis, and Okwui Enwezor among others.