In early October, after 46 years on 57th Street, the George Adams Gallery will reopen in a new space on the first floor of 525 West 26th Street. The gallery's inaugural exhibitions will be new paintings and drawings by James Valerio and a survey of prints and multiples by Lesley Dill. The Valerio exhibition will be installed in the main gallery and will feature three new paintings as well as four pencil drawings all completed within the past two years. The Dill exhibition will include works published over the past 15 years by Dieu Donne Papermill, Graphicstudio, Landfall Press, Kruty Editions and Solo Impression, Inc.
James Valerio has always painted on a very large scale, and the works in this exhibition, all measuring 8 x 7 feet, are no exception. From the Window 2004, depicts a view of downtown Chicago as seen from the city's west side, while August Rose, set in a suburban backyard, portrays a woman standing in an inflatable plastic wading pool. The third canvas, as yet untitled, is a scene of two men pruning a tree viewed from below. The drawings, all densely worked portraits, include a 3/4 length self-portrait and a portrait of the artist's wife.
Valerio, who was born and raised in Chicago, lives in Evanston where he teaches at Northwestern University. This will be the artist's 10th one-man show at the gallery since 1983. Valerio has also had solo exhibitions at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington (1983), the University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City (1994), and the Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina (2000). Valerio is represented in the collections of these institutions as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Arkansas Art Center, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, among others.
Exhibition Checklist
Clockwise from the reception desk:
From the Window, 2004
oil on canvas
96 x 84 inches
JVp 26
Pat, 2004
pencil on paper
29 3/4 x 26 inches
JVd 55
August Rose, 2004
oil on canvas
96 x 84 inches
JVp 27
Joe, 2005
Pencil on paper
27 1/4 x 24 inches
JVd 53
Pruning, 2005
oil on canvas
84 1/4 x 96 1/4 inches
JVp 28
David, 2004
pencil on paper
23 x 18 inches
JVd 52
Self-portrait, 2005
pencil on paper
40 x 28 3/4 inches
JVd 54
