“I am interested in fabricating structures that operate as a means to view and frame actual space, surroundings and real time encounters.”
Adam Gillam’s delicate structures have an impromptu quality, akin to a makeshift moment given form. His work is balanced and nuanced; scraps of material, like scraps of time, are assembled in an inventive, bricolage fashion.
Gillam improvises with different materials, and the quality of those materials and the act of working with them determines the end result in a particularly lucid way. “We are given a work that has been made step by step, of which we see all the steps at once.” (Melissa Gronlund) The process of making is both a method and an interpretive tool. Works emerge from a day-to-day engagement with utilitarian materials and what Gillam calls his ‘scatty pragmatics’ approach.
Born in the UK in 1970
Lives and works in London
Education
1994-1997 MA Painting, Royal Academy Schools, London
1991 – 1994 BA, Painting, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2020
In Constant Use, Tintype, London
2015
Stop Bugging Me – Frame 1: Adam Gillam, Tintype, London
2013
Ideal Paste, Tintype, London
2008
I am definitely coming for longer if I come again, KLERKX, Milan
2007
Art is a cupboard, Keith Talent, London
Group Exhibitions
2022
BOOT, curated by Neil Zakiewicz, Terrace Gallery, London
Mud, Artwave, Sussex, UK
2019
More Gravy!, Tintype, London
1d for Abroad, Tintype, London
2017
Work Work, curated with Jo Addison and Mark Harris, and showed in,a group show of 26 artists
Im In The Garden, Foal Art, Ryde, Isle of Wight, curated by Joanne Hummel-Newel
The Order of Things, The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, curated by Andrew Bick, Jonathan Parsons, and Katie Pratt
2014
Conversations Around Marlow Moss, Curated by Andrew Bick and Katrin Blannin, &Model, Leeds
Against Nature, Camberwell Space, London
2013
This-Here-Now, noformat, London
2012
Crazee Golf, Tintype Gallery, London
Curator’s Egg, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2011
Construction and it’s shadow, Leeds City Art Gallery
Melanchotopia, Witte de With, Rotterdam
Just Photography, Martos Galleery, New York
Adam Gillam, Joe Orton, Kenneth Halliwell, Ancient and Modern, London
2010
Z(A)RT, curated by Jan Hoet, ABTART Gallery, Stuttgart
The Thought of Stuff, Royal Society of British Sculptors, London
2009
Reconstructing the old house, The Nunnery, London and Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge
Cortez Arrives, Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
Adam Gillam, Sarah Mackillop, MOT International, London
Brussels Biennial 1, Show me don’t tell me, Witte de With, Rotterdam
2006
Wandering rocks, Gimpel Fils, London
2005
The way we work now, Camden Arts Centre, London
This show is ribbed for her pleasure, Cynthia Broan, New York
2004
Doubtful pleasures, APT Gallery, London
Eating at another’s table, Metropole Gallery Folkstone
2003
With pleasure, IOTA Gallery, Ramsgate
2002
The Map is Not The Territory, England and Co, London
Residencies/Fellowships
October 2004 Triangle Artists Workshop, New York City
May 2004 Artist Residency, Metropole Galleries, Folkstone, Kent
August 2003 Braziers International Artist Workshop, Oxfordshire, UK
1998 – 2000 City and Guilds of London Art School: Research Fellowship
Publications
Melanchotopia, published by Witte de With, Rotterdam, September 2011
Reconstructing the Old House, published by Anglia Ruskin University, ISBN 978-0-907262-73-2
(Z)Art, curated by Jan Hoet ISBN 978-3-942102-00-1
Brussels Biennial, published by Walter Koenig. ISBN 978 – 3 – 86560 – 555 – 9
I am definitely coming for longer if I come again. Text by Melissa Gronlund.
ISBN 978-1-85721-387-4
Art is a Cupboard. Keith Talent Gallery. Text by Mark Beasley: ISBN 978-1-85721-379-9
The Way We Work Now Published by Camden Arts Centre ISBN 1 900470 49 7
The Map Is Not The Territory Part 2 England & Co (ISBN 1 902046 19 6)
The Map Is Not The Territory, England & Co (ISBN 1 902046 129)
Selected reviews/interviews
http://www.saturationpoint.org.uk/Order_of_Things.html
Time out http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/270342/crazee-golf
This is tomorrow http://www.thisistomorrow.info/viewArticle.aspx?artId=1484&Title=Crazee%20Golf
Melanchotopia in Frieze issue 144 (Jan-Feb 2012) by Esperanza Rosales
Review by Andrew Bick in Kultureflash: http://www.kultureflash.net/eventDetail.aspx?Evt=583-Adam-Gillam-+-Joe-Orton-&-Kenneth-Halliwell
Review by Skye Sherwin: http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/751/Joe_Orton_and_Kenneth_Halliwells_library_books
Review by Morgan Quaintance: http://www.thisistomorrow.info/viewArticle.aspx?artId=658
Review by Caroline McGinn in Time Out, 17th February 2011
Review by Skye Sherwin, The Guardian Guide, 21/1/2011
Review By Alice Jones, The Arts Diary, The Independent, 8/1/2011
The Art Newspaper, December 2010
Dazed, February 2011
This is Leicestershire 31/1/2011 http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Orton-inspired-sculptures-London/article-3161616-detail/article.html
Reviewed by Maria Fusco in Frieze, April 2011, page 130
(Z)Art http://www.z-art.info/pressestimmen.php
I am definitely coming for longer if I come again, reviewed by Ginevra Bria in www.exibart.com , 7th January 2008.
Interview with Caryn Coleman on Suicide Girls June 2007
Brooklyn Rail “Letter from London” Sherman Sam May 2007
(http://brooklynrail.org/2007/5/artseen/letter)
“What Does It All Mean?” Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 26.07.05
“Work Experience” Sarah Kent, Time Out 24.08.05
Pick of The Week, The Guardian July-August 2005
Metro, Monday 25.07.05
“The DIY is cast” Nick Hackworth, Evening Standard 22.07.05
Alison Oldham, Ham-high, 12.08.05
Wandering Rocks reviewed by Helen Sumpter, Time Out 31 01 08