In Adam Umbach’s new series, New Found American Freedom, the artist continues to master creating an alphabet of photorealistic objects, referencing Color Field Painting, and graffiti to demonstrate unassuming techniques that emphasize line, color, and form. With a freshness to his vision, he aims to establish a new scale of painting and a way for painting to accompany modern architecture through breaking up the picture plane. Umbach began each piece through choosing sentimental objects from his world and adopting the forms to multiple canvases, which signify separate blocks of thought. Each panel could be a complete work; however, the panels come together to create a fuller composition with one another that can adapt sculpturally to the space they occupy.
Umbach’s paintings are autobiographical and explore a collective nostalgia for childhood memories by juxtaposing detailed photorealistic representations of everyday objects that connect to deep personal ties to memory with expressionistic mark making. Using his non-dominant hand to create the thickly rendered lines and forms, he builds on the sense of play by drawing with the uncertainty and freedom of a child. This formal tension mirrors the balance between his playful, often humorous choice of subjects with the weight of the memories they symbolize—a sense of loneliness pervading a singular balloon, toy, or boat combined with the comfort and hope that it brings.
"The quieting of life in the pandemic has allowed for distant moments to surface as we all long for a safer past. I enjoy distilling these memories into paintings that focus on a single recognizable object, which can ignite the imagination and personal history of the viewer as they remember this piece of American life in their own context. Whatever the feeling of the memory associated with each painting, I prefer whimsical objects that reflect the hope and optimism I feel looking into the future. After getting married during the pandemic, my feelings and thoughts about belonging and partnership have filtered into these new multi-paneled works. With the grounding and energy from that support, the worlds inside my paintings have become freer, more experimental and complex.” -Adam Umbach