Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible' at CAC, New Orleans

Including film, wall paintings, ceramics, silkscreens and found imagery, Adam Pendleton's 'Becoming Imperceptible' is the artist's largest ever solo show, opening in April at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Pictured: WE (we are not successive), 2015

(Image credit: courtesy the artist)

By Daniel Scheffler

last updated 24 October 2022

Conceptual artist Adam Pendleton will open his largest museum solo show – 'Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible' – at Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans on 1 April. Pendleton, known for his paintings exploring politics and language through historical and modernist imagery, is once again addressing race and the influence of Black Lives Matter in the US.

Pendleton, at 31, was the youngest artist to represent the Belgian Pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale and is included in the permanent collections of top museums around the world (MoMA among them). As an obsessive reader with a vast library, his work is full of references to poets and writers, from Amiri Baraka to WEB Du Bois to Adrian Piper.

This latest show addresses race and socio-economic standing through subtler messaging. His work, so often facing African-American political and social history, is particularly New Orleans appropriate for this reason; and the Contemporary Arts Center, located in the city’s Warehouse Arts District, is devoting all three floors of its galleries to Pendleton for an offering that includes film, wall paintings, ceramics and silk screens – an indication of the show's thematic importance to the city and its people.

'I’m interested in the art object as a site of engagement, and the infinite possibilities of what can happen when images, ideas and people that are traditionally looked at separately merge in this space,' says Pendleton. 'Black Lives Matter is arguably a global movement that is actively reshaping our view of our recent past and future contingencies.'

Black Lives Matter (wall work), 2015 — At 31, Pendleton was the youngest artist to represent the Belgian Pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale. Pictured: *Black Lives Matter #1 (wall work)*, 2015

Magicienne 2015 CAC is devoting all three floors of its galleries to Pendleton — CAC is devoting all three floors of its galleries to Pendleton – an indication of the importance of the show’s themes to the city and its people. Pictured left: *Magicienne #2*, 2015. Right: *Untitled*, 2016

Pendleton concludes, 'Black Lives Matter is arguably a global movement that is actively reshaping our view of our recent past and future contingencies.' Pictured: *My Education: A Portrait of David Hilliard*, 2011–14. *Courtesy Pace Gallery, New York and London*

INFORMATION

’Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible’, opens 1 April at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. For more information, visit the CAC’s website (opens in new tab)

Photography courtesy the artist

ADDRESS

Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans
900 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130-3908

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Daniel Scheffler is a storyteller for The New York Times and others. He has a travel podcast with iHeart Media called Everywhere (opens in new tab) and a Substack newsletter, Withoutmaps (opens in new tab), where he shares all his wild ways. He lives in New York with his husband and their pup.