Bio
J. Adam Bee spent many of their formative years in crowded train cars and the quiet corners of museums in New York. Their studio practice is primarily informed by the traditions of painting and the history of images. Their work is concerned with privacy, exploitation, and the misuse of personal artifacts. They received their BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in painting from Montserrat College of Art. They are currently based in the greater Boston area.
Statement
I’m fascinated with the physical image as an object with a purpose, and what later happens to these objects when they lose their intended purpose. Likewise, through portraiture, I explore what happens to people when they are stigmatized, othered, and ultimately discarded.
As a painter, I work in a dead medium, reinterpreting lost photos and assigning new meanings. I work primarily from found private photos— images the general public and I as an artist would not traditionally have access to. Medical textbooks, vintage amateur pornography, and evidence photography are all fertile ground. Through sitting with my subjects, I form a relationship with them, knowing them at their most intimate and vulnerable moments. During the act of display, I exploit them.