PETER FREEMAN, INC.
140 GRAND STREET
NEW YORK NEW YORK 10013
212 966 5154 / fax: 212 966 5349
PRESS RELEASE
exhibition: David Adamo / James Castle
date: 7 September - 19 October 2013
Peter Freeman, Inc is pleased to present a new exhibition with artists David Adamo and James Castle. What had
originally been planned to be two simultaneous one-person exhibitions has instead been purposefully integrated
throughout the space: new work by Adamo installed in a dialogue with historic work by Castle, specially selected by
Adamo.
For David Adamo’s inaugural exhibition at Peter Freeman Inc., the artist presents both new work and recent works
shown for the first time in the US. Filling much of the space is his largest chalk floor to date: more than 1,800 square
feet of school chalk laid in a herringbone pattern, mimicking a vast antique parquet floor. This massive installation is
interrupted by Untitled (5 columns): wooden columns chiseled into emaciated forms, a frail juxtaposition with the iron
Corinthian columns of the gallery. In another room, a shelf with 200 erasers made of clay is in direct dialogue with a
second shelf of “pencils” and drawing tools made and used by Castle, and never before exhibited. Dispersed within
the space are Adamo’s newest sculptures, a series of miniature radiators equipped with operating heating systems.
Historical works by James Castle, all selected by David Adamo in close collaboration with the James Castle
Collection and Archive, Boise, Idaho, are presented throughout the exhibition. In most instances, Adamo has chosen
drawings that have never been exhibited before, and will mostly be unknown even to those who are very familiar with
Castle. Color, and the repetition of form, are the two major surprises in this exhibition, for Castle is best known for his
precise and intimately rendered farm landscapes and building interiors drawn in soot on found paper. Many of the
works chosen are in bright colors: one, a remarkable set of 60 renderings of the same figure, each its own distinct
variation: another set of 35 drawings, all versions of a “Challenge Butter” package label. Adamo’s selection questions
if the artist created each as a study of form and color, as a way to understand his own creative process, or simply the
result of obsessive experimentation. A large group of text drawings will also be shown for the first time, as well as an
unknown series of very precise, almost academic renderings of vases copied from an art school manual. In Adamo’s
selection--very much that of one artist looking at another artist--Castle is shown to draw in a greater range of styles
than many realize, and through Adamo’s eyes it is clear that every mode has as much quality and artistic insight as
any of the soot drawings for which Castle has become so famous.
Born in Rochester, New York, in 1979, David Adamo has lived and worked in Berlin since 2008. Recent exhibitions
include solo presentations at Mendes Wood, Sao Paolo (2013), MD72, Berlin (2013), Bielefeld Kunstverein (2012),
Ibid Projects, London (2012), and Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, in Bergamo (2011). The artist has also participated
in many significant group exhibitions, including Based in Berlin organized by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art,
Berlin (2011), No Sense of Place at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2011), The Whitney Biennial, New York (2010), and
Greater New York at MoMA P.S.1, New York (2010). David Adamo’s exhibition continues at Untitled Gallery, located
at 30 Orchard Street, where the artist is presenting a group of small-scale plaster termite mounds resembling those
originally found in the African savanna, South America and Australia.
James Castle, born in 1899 in rural central Idaho, first came to the public eye in the early 1960's. Recognition grew
over the years, particularly after his death in 1977, resulting in the widely acclaimed retrospective organized by the
Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008 which travelled to Art Institute of Chicago in 2009 and UC Berkeley Art Museum
and Pacific Film Archive in 2012. Castle’s oeuvre has also received international recognition with such exhibitions as
James Castle: Show and Store coordinated by Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, in 2011. German artist Rosemarie Trockel included several of James Castles’
paper and twine bird sculptures as part of her recent retrospective presented in Museo Reina Sofia and New York’s
New Museum, both in 2012, and Serpentine Gallery in London in 2013. The same selection of constructions by
James Castle is currently on view at the Arsenale in Venice as part of the exhibition curated by Cindy Sherman for the
55th Art Biennale. Peter Freeman, Inc. represents the James Castle Collection and Archive.
A reception for David Adamo and the James Castle Collection and Archive will be held on Saturday, 7 September
from 6 to 8 pm.
For reproduction requests, interviews with the artist and general inquiries, please contact the gallery at 212-966-5154
or info@peterfreemaninc.com
140 GRAND STREET
NEW YORK NEW YORK 10013
212 966 5154 / fax: 212 966 5349
PRESS RELEASE
exhibition: David Adamo / James Castle
date: 7 September - 19 October 2013
Peter Freeman, Inc is pleased to present a new exhibition with artists David Adamo and James Castle. What had
originally been planned to be two simultaneous one-person exhibitions has instead been purposefully integrated
throughout the space: new work by Adamo installed in a dialogue with historic work by Castle, specially selected by
Adamo.
For David Adamo’s inaugural exhibition at Peter Freeman Inc., the artist presents both new work and recent works
shown for the first time in the US. Filling much of the space is his largest chalk floor to date: more than 1,800 square
feet of school chalk laid in a herringbone pattern, mimicking a vast antique parquet floor. This massive installation is
interrupted by Untitled (5 columns): wooden columns chiseled into emaciated forms, a frail juxtaposition with the iron
Corinthian columns of the gallery. In another room, a shelf with 200 erasers made of clay is in direct dialogue with a
second shelf of “pencils” and drawing tools made and used by Castle, and never before exhibited. Dispersed within
the space are Adamo’s newest sculptures, a series of miniature radiators equipped with operating heating systems.
Historical works by James Castle, all selected by David Adamo in close collaboration with the James Castle
Collection and Archive, Boise, Idaho, are presented throughout the exhibition. In most instances, Adamo has chosen
drawings that have never been exhibited before, and will mostly be unknown even to those who are very familiar with
Castle. Color, and the repetition of form, are the two major surprises in this exhibition, for Castle is best known for his
precise and intimately rendered farm landscapes and building interiors drawn in soot on found paper. Many of the
works chosen are in bright colors: one, a remarkable set of 60 renderings of the same figure, each its own distinct
variation: another set of 35 drawings, all versions of a “Challenge Butter” package label. Adamo’s selection questions
if the artist created each as a study of form and color, as a way to understand his own creative process, or simply the
result of obsessive experimentation. A large group of text drawings will also be shown for the first time, as well as an
unknown series of very precise, almost academic renderings of vases copied from an art school manual. In Adamo’s
selection--very much that of one artist looking at another artist--Castle is shown to draw in a greater range of styles
than many realize, and through Adamo’s eyes it is clear that every mode has as much quality and artistic insight as
any of the soot drawings for which Castle has become so famous.
Born in Rochester, New York, in 1979, David Adamo has lived and worked in Berlin since 2008. Recent exhibitions
include solo presentations at Mendes Wood, Sao Paolo (2013), MD72, Berlin (2013), Bielefeld Kunstverein (2012),
Ibid Projects, London (2012), and Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, in Bergamo (2011). The artist has also participated
in many significant group exhibitions, including Based in Berlin organized by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art,
Berlin (2011), No Sense of Place at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2011), The Whitney Biennial, New York (2010), and
Greater New York at MoMA P.S.1, New York (2010). David Adamo’s exhibition continues at Untitled Gallery, located
at 30 Orchard Street, where the artist is presenting a group of small-scale plaster termite mounds resembling those
originally found in the African savanna, South America and Australia.
James Castle, born in 1899 in rural central Idaho, first came to the public eye in the early 1960's. Recognition grew
over the years, particularly after his death in 1977, resulting in the widely acclaimed retrospective organized by the
Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008 which travelled to Art Institute of Chicago in 2009 and UC Berkeley Art Museum
and Pacific Film Archive in 2012. Castle’s oeuvre has also received international recognition with such exhibitions as
James Castle: Show and Store coordinated by Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, in 2011. German artist Rosemarie Trockel included several of James Castles’
paper and twine bird sculptures as part of her recent retrospective presented in Museo Reina Sofia and New York’s
New Museum, both in 2012, and Serpentine Gallery in London in 2013. The same selection of constructions by
James Castle is currently on view at the Arsenale in Venice as part of the exhibition curated by Cindy Sherman for the
55th Art Biennale. Peter Freeman, Inc. represents the James Castle Collection and Archive.
A reception for David Adamo and the James Castle Collection and Archive will be held on Saturday, 7 September
from 6 to 8 pm.
For reproduction requests, interviews with the artist and general inquiries, please contact the gallery at 212-966-5154
or info@peterfreemaninc.com