(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. This truth is the only reality that we as humans have. Art for Memphis is a means of translating this feeling into a tangible object, a painting. Memphis creates art to communicate what words cannot, visuals that document his experience of the physical world, and are an exploration of transitory space.

 Memphis graduated from 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. As a photographer, Memphis explores urban landscapes engaging with industrial spaces and aging infrastructure to capture color, layers and 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. Memphis continues to broaden our understandings of abstraction, bridging the known and unknown, the seen and unseen layers of art making into universal language that is sure to inspire others for years to come.