(b.1990 in Memphis,TN)  ‘Memphis’ J.Adams is a Contemporary/Fine Artist living/working in Portland,OR.

In both painting and photography, Memphis generates artwork that tells a story about relationships. His work is about history/identity, death, transition, becoming and unbecoming. It is about seeing and feeling the world around you and within you. Textures, colors and forms become the root elements of a language that he believes is universal, both known and unknown, yet still accessible to anyone who wishes to make meaning. He believes that the myth of the artist is a correlative exchange of ideas - a mystery that compels him to journey deep into the realms of abstraction, to inspire others to express what they believe to be true. That this truth is the only reality that we as humans have. Memphis creates art to communicate what words can not, visuals that document his experience of physical space, an exploration of transitory space

 Memphis graduated Portland State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2017. As a painter, he works with cold wax (an alchemical blend of beeswax and solvents to create a medium that is mixed with oil paint, or pigments/minerals.) Memphis meticulously builds up layers of cold wax, which are then altered as he begins to scrape/etch various marks and gestures into the layered artwork revealing a rich history of colors and forms. He considers this part of the process a way of communicating with and through the medium(s),challenging the ideas of non-representational or pure abstraction in art. This can be seen in recent works like “Retinal Detachment”. As a photographer, Memphis explores urban landscapes engaging with industrial spaces, and aging infrastructure to capture color, layers, texture that inform his painting practice. His “painted” photography - an exploration of both practices, using paint as a way to create through the chaotic manipulation of a photograph, has been exhibited in Erikson Gallery in Portland, OR. In his final BFA year Memphis was part of a group exhibition at the Autzen Gallery in Portland,OR. His thesis was about identity in a world of abstractions, which explored his relationship to abstract art as a form of direct representation of the artist.