Conny Purtill’s
The Ground
February 12-March 26, 2022

Adams and Ollman is pleased to present the sixth iteration of Conny Purtill’s The Ground. Purtill makes group exhibitions that somehow never seem to lose the aroma of a solo presentation. Along with Purtill, the exhibition will include work by Edgar Arceneaux, Taylor Davis, Luc Fuller, Jay Heikes, Nick Herman, Adam Horovitz, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Pierre Leguillon, Ari Marcopoulos, Dianna Molzan, Todd Norsten, Jenelle Porter, Alex Slade, Oliver Strand, Ricky Swallow, Lesley Vance, Emmett Wilkins, and Keith Wilkins. There will be painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, sound, photographs, and a levitation.

“I wanted to write a standard press release describing Conny Purtill’s exhibition, but like everything involved with The Ground, all expectations or norms get challenged or subverted or ignored. When I presented Conny with a first draft, he gently asked if the text could be in my voice and that I could ‘get into any weeds you want!’ I realized that I wasn’t just presenting the show at my gallery, but was now a part of it.

I first encountered Conny’s drawings in 2009 at the home of our friend and fellow artist, Josh Rickards, who was hosting a viewing party for Conny’s art work. Laid out across several rectangular tables were a series of art books and several pairs of white gloves. Each of the books contained small, curious, delicate pencil drawings made directly onto the pages of the books—tucked here and there in the unused spaces. I remember that this seemed both like a hostile act and also a generous one. I turned the pages one by one slowly discovering a convincing language of shapes and glyphs akin to linguistic roots and variations. I desperately wanted to access or understand their meaning. I was seeing impossibly crafted shapes of which I had never even conceived—the path of a bird’s flight, the space between a basketball player’s two legs as they leap to shoot the ball. Conny masterfully draws time-travelers, mountains, the shape of a nose, the cosmos with grace for no one but himself or those who go looking for them. Each holds its own idiosyncratic logic, structure, and meaning, often exploring foundational principles like time, gravity, love, speed, togetherness, ego, and grace. I have since learned that Conny secretly draws in people’s libraries, leaving artwork to be discovered when you next open a favorite book. I believe that we have several Conny drawings in our home that are waiting to be seen.

I left that evening wanting to see more, but never asked Conny for a studio visit. Instead I cut to the chase and asked him if we could make an exhibition together. He said no, as he did several more times over the next few years, until one day when he said yes. It was then that I started to learn the depth of Conny’s creativity, generosity, genius and spirit.

Everything that the artist makes is called "The Ground", which could reference several things—gravity, flight, surface, support. His incredibly personal project, first exhibited at Midway Contemporary Art in 2009, is informed and fed by his practice as a book designer and one that nurtures relationships with fellow artists and friends. The artist’s reverence for community and connection leads him to engage different modes of collaboration and exchange to charge friendships, challenge the speed of production, and reassess value in art. He complicates the idea of authorship, ownership, value and progression, and even the basic tenet of art as something that must be seen or have an audience.

Central to his work is an ongoing system of exchange in which Conny gifts “grounds” to fellow artists. He prepares these grounds, all uniform in size, with alternating layers of white and toned gesso. After eleven layers have been applied, Conny uses the surface to create his own paintings, each of which are sanded down after completion. When the canvas is exhausted, the artist neutralizes it with graphite creating a rich and varied monochromatic gray surface. They are beautiful objects that become the substrate on which others create a new work. Eight of these works will be included in the exhibition by Edgar Arceneaux, Taylor Davis, Jay Heikes, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Pierre Leguillon, Dianna Molzan, Todd Norsten, and Lesley Vance.

Also on view will be a table constructed by my husband and son, Keith and Emmett Wilkins, from an Enzo Mari design, which will display photographs, drawings and objects by Alex Slade and Luc Fuller, as well as Conny’s moveable collages and drawn-in books—the drawings that I saw now over 12 years ago which started us on this path to reveal an artist’s work to an audience that has been incredibly receptive to art made not for public consumption, but for love.

The Ground continues in the second gallery with a small group exhibition organized by Conny that explores the concept of time. Sculptures and objects by Taylor Davis, Ricky Swallow, Jay Heikes, Nick Herman, Pierre Leguillon, Luc Fuller, as well as a photography by Ari Marcopoulos and a poem by Oliver Strand, contemplate the origins of the universe to the rhythm of the sun to the mundane rituals of everyday life.

The project continues to weave together a growing and evolving group of incredibly talented artists and thinkers and we are honored to be both taking part in and presenting it.”

Conny Purtill (b. 1969, Arizona) is an artist and book designer who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Purtill has exhibited most recently at Fondazione Giuliani, Rome; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Florence Loewy, Paris; Ecole D’art et de Design, Geneva; Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis; Vox Populi and Temple Gallery at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, both in Philadelphia. Select performances have been presented at Renwick Gallery, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and WIELS, Brussels.

Select Works

Conny Purtill
The Ground: Sunshine on the Backside, 2020
oil, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w in
55.88h x 43.18w cm
CP_2020_06


Todd Norsten and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Finger Eight, 2022
oil, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w in
55.88h x 43.18w cm
TN_CP_05


Taylor Davis and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Untitled, 2022
oak, magnets
dimensions variable
TD_CP_03


Edgar Arceneaux and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Skinning the Mirror #39, 2022
acrylic, glass, silver, silver nitrate, gesso, India ink, and graphite on canvas
22h x 17w in
55.88h x 43.18w cm
EA_CP_001


Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Too much talking, 2022
flasche, acrylic, ink, paper mache, paper cups, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w in55.88h x 43.18w cm
JJH_CP_04


Dianna Molzan and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Melrose Bouquet, 2022
oil, pumice, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w x 1d in
55.88h x 43.18w x 2.54d cm
DM_CP_02


Jay Heikes and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Sniff, 2021
oil, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w in55.88h x 43.18w cm
JH_CP_04


Pierre Leguillon and Conny Purtill
The Ground (as saké bar), 2022
sake, oil, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w in55.88h x 43.18w cm
PL_CP_001


Lesley Vance and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Untitled, 2019
oil, gesso, India ink, and pencil on canvas
22h x 17w in
55.88h x 43.18w cm
LV_CP_2022_01

Conny
The Ground: Putty Must, 2021
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_10


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Putty Must, 2021
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_11


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Landscape, 2022
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2022_05


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Landscape, 2021
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_12


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Smoker, 2021 watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_13


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Landscape, 2021
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_14


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Landscape, 2021
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_15


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Juggler, 2021
watercolor and graphite on found paper
12h x 7 3/4w in
30.48h x 19.69w cm
CP_2021_16

Conny P
The Ground: Landscape re-drawing, 2021
graphite on found paper with nail
8 3/8h x 5 3/8w in
21.27h x 13.65w cm
CP_2021_17



Conny Purtill
The Ground: Kite 1, 2022
drawing on found paper, bamboo
12h x 9w in
30.48h x 22.86w cm
CP_2022_04


Luc Fuller
Untitled Clock, 2022
acrylic on paper
4h x 6w in
10.16h x 15.24w cm
LF_2022_01


Alex Slade
LACMA Japanese Pavilion, 2021
archival pigment print
edition 2/6
10h x 8w in
25.40h x 20.32w cm
AS_001


Conny Purtill
The Ground: On Kawara Rummy, 2020-21
collage
9h x 6 1/2w in
22.86h x 16.51w cm
CP_2022_11




Conny Purtill
4 drawings in Karl Martens "Tokyo Papers", 2020-21
watercolor and graphite on book pages
12h x 8 1/2w in
30.48h x 21.59w cm
CP_2022_10






Conny Purtill
33 drawings in Emmett Williams "Sweethearts", 2020 graphite on book pages
7 3/4h x 5 3/8w in
19.69h x 13.65w cm
CP_2022_09


Conny Purtill
2 drawings in "Ad Rock", 2013
graphite on book pages
9h x 6 1/4w in
22.86h x 15.88w cm
CP_2022_08


Conny Purtill
1 drawing in "Not Quiet", 2020-21
watercolor and graphite on book pages
11 3/4h x 8 1/4w in
29.85h x 20.96w cm
CP_2022_07


Conny Purtill
1 drawing in "Tamayo", 2021
watercolor and graphite on book pages
24 3/4h x 16w in
62.87h x 40.64w cm
CP_2022_06


Nick Herman
On Earth (erratic), 2006-2007
mixed media paint on cast polyurethane, dried grass, brass 40h x 30w x 5d in
101.60h x 76.20w x 12.70d cm
NH_2022_01


Taylor Davis
Untitled, 2022
milled red or sugar maple
5h x 84w x 108d in
12.70h x 213.36w x 274.32d cm
TDavis 04


Jay Heikes
Minor Planet, 2022
iodine on canvas
9h x 9w x 9d in
22.86h x 22.86w x 22.86d cm
JH_001


Ari Marcopoulos
Pina Bausch, 1985
silver gelatin print
16 3/16h x 12w x 1 3/8d in
41.12h x 30.48w x 3.49d cm
AMar_03


Ricky Swallow
Horoscope #10, 2017
painted bronze
6 3/4h x 7w x 1 1/2d in
17.15h x 17.78w x 3.81d cm
RS_2022_01


Oliver Strand
Already Traveled, 2022
INT transfer
20h x 21w in
50.80h x 53.34w cm
OS_2022_01


Pierre Leguillon
Cup, 2020
glazed ceramic
3 1/4h x 4 1/4w x 4 1/4d in
8.26h x 10.80w x 10.80d cmPL_001


Luc Fuller
Disco Coasters, 2021
Italian leather
3 1/2h x 4w in
8.89h x 10.16w cm
LF_2021_01


Conny Purtill
The Ground: Handheld prints, 2022
plywood, gesso, India ink, pencil
1/4h x 15w x 21d in
38.10w x 53.34d cm
CP_2022_12


Jenelle Porter and Conny Purtill
The Ground: Ah Curtain, 2022
pencil on fabric
144h x 48w in
365.76h x 121.92w cm
CP_JP_01



Conny Purtill
The Ground: Ah Levitation, 2022
performance
duration: 21 minutes 34 seconds
CP_2022_03