Elias Hansen: The Best Truth We Got
April 25–May 25, 2019

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce The Best Truth We Got, an exhibition of new works by Elias Hansen. Following the artist’s return to the West Coast, the landscape and character of which greatly inform his work, Hansen’s new sculptures reflect a deepened resolve to explore his long-standing interests in Cascadian narratives, with distinct ecological, cultural and political themes including ritual, DIY and punk subcultures, freedom, and self reliance. On view at the gallery will be a group of related sculptures including wall- and floor-based works, as well as a large chandelier.

Primary to Hansen's work is a belief that the experience of the land and its frontier wildness is ecstatic and spiritual. Drawing from nature, most literally through his use of tree stumps and branches, Hansen experiments with glass and found materials in arrangements that evoke laboratories, replete with hand-blown beakers, tubes, and flasks. Illuminated by light bulbs and gestural neon, itself a nod to the American landscape, the assemblages become slap-dash science experiments, or conjectures with an alchemical mix of found, crafted, common and mysterious objects. Sophisticated formalist strategies–of light, color, composition and texture–coexist with impulses found in artist environments and in vernacular traditions such as bottle trees. Hansen’s outlaw compositions and structures are challenging and enigmatic, hinting at dark narratives and personal cosmologies.

Elias Hansen was born in 1979 in Indianola, WA and currently lives and works in Bellingham, WA. His work has been exhibited at the Palais De Tokyo, Paris; American Academy in Rome; Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan; and Pomona College Museum of Art, Pomona, CA, among others. His work is included in the collections of Fondazione Giuliani, Rome; Colección Jumex, Mexico City; Boise Art Museum, ID; and the Seattle Art Museum, WA.

installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got=


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


installation view: The Best Truth We Got


Elias Hansen
The best truth we got., 2019
glass, light and steel
83 x 36 x 36 inches
EHansen_201909


Elias Hansen
I’ve been crying since you died., 2019
glass, light and steel
43 x 26 x 20 inches
EHansen_201905


Elias Hansen
The bond of friendship is all that is left., 2019
glass, light, steel and wood
84 x 60 x 48 inches
EHansen_201907


Elias Hansen
Light Sculpture 2019, 2019
glass and light
16 x 21 x 12 inches
EHansen_201901


Elias Hansen
A place for death to rest., 2019
cork, glass and wood
22 x 25 x 9 inches
EHansen_201903


Elias Hansen
We own nothing besides our breath., 2019
glass, wax and wood
19 x 36 x 14 inches
EHansen_201904


Elias Hansen
Light Sculpture 2019, 2019
glass, light and steel
13 x 13 x 26 inches
EHansen_201902


Elias Hansen
The warmth of love is worth the fight., 2019
glass, light and steel
108 x 84 x 84 inches
EHansen_201910


Elias Hansen
Better be ready to die., 2019
blood, found objects, glass, hair, light and semen
46 x 23 x 17 inches
EHansen_201906


Elias Hansen
Eclipsing the sadness with joy., 2019
glass, light and wood
90 x 41 x 18 inches
EHansen_201908