We can't wait to see the latest works from one of our favorite artists, Derrick Adams, as he's having quite a great moment of output while getting ready to open The Ins and Outs: Figures in the Urban Landscape at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago this weekend. The show's press release begins with a wonderful quote from bell hooks: "The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is—it’s to imagine what is possible." The show runs through July 6, 2019.

The Ins and Outs: Figures in the Urban Landscape is the gallery’s third solo exhibition with the Brooklyn-based artist. Adams’ new paintings speak to a legacy of perseverance in the Black community, unfolding the twists and turns, joys and struggles of navigating life in an urban context.

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As a continuation of Adams’ Deconstruction Worker series (2010–), the constructed portraits depict vernacular scenes from the artist's everyday life while using a style drawn from Modernism, contemporary Pop Culture, and idealized and exaggerated forms of traditional African sculpting. The works are framed by abstracted city streets rendered in a cubist style while miniature model automobiles try to break free of the two-dimensional plane. The city grid speaks to the paradox of movement and progress—both individual and collective—within the confines of existing paths. Whether posed or caught in motion, the subjects are surrounded by an environment that adjusts to accommodate each individual. For Adams, the works suggest that “we are who we are because our presence is strong enough to also inform the spaces we occupy.”

With this work, Adams continues his ongoing project of creating space to imagine alternative narratives; he seeks to empower his viewers with fulfillment and dignity, proposing that awareness of one’s own cultural capital can be foundational to Black autonomy.