Adam Chapman

“I seek to capture the fleeting, euphoric moments when the mechanics of the world flash briefly into focus. My work-in-progress continues to merge the dynamic possibilities of contemporary tools with the millennia-old tradition of mark-making,” observes Adam Chapman.

In perpetual animation, the artist’s lines and patches of color project against a sheet of archival paper, which rests between the screen and the LED illumination, tying these works firmly to a long history of drawing. Each single-portrait work, identified by the name of the subject, combines the tonality and contours of three sketches of the sitter, the elements of which continually reformulate themselves.

The central composition, Diagram of Isolated Moments Forming a Memory, layers all 150 portrait images of fifty different subjects, rendering a world of friends and family. With a melodic transformation that suspends these works between figuration and abstraction, Chapman’s portraits play with the dynamics of the human imagination, creating an analog for the fashion in which our recollections of loved ones float and coalesce in ever-changing fashions in our minds. The artist has compared the effect to the Japanese concept of mono no aware, which conveys the fleeting, ephemeral nature of beauty.

Based in New York City, Chapman received training in both visual art and writing. His work has been exhibited internationally.