Phoebe Adams is very established and well known as a sculptor. However, she loves to paint and preferably on paper. In the late 1990s, Adams created a series of small watercolor paintings on paper that measured 7.5 x 11.25 inches and became a seminal body of work that set into motion a twenty-year investigation and entirely new platform for the artist. Her explorations of imagery and materials in the two-dimensional realm have evolved into much larger scale works and on a stunning array of heavy papers with deckled and sculpted edges that feel more like an object than a painting. Not a surprise given her passion for sculpting.

This presentation of 22 small, matted watercolors from this pivotal series lays the groundwork for viewing her later paintings through the 2000s. Many of the recurring and reappropriated motifs, situations and scenes throughout her painting series are similar and derived from the primal shapes and forms in these early works. This presentation also debuts the gallery’s newest presentation space, the mezzanines which are appropriately scaled and lit for smaller artworks, drawings and documentary materials.