Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck
March 17–April 22, 2017

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce a two person exhibition with Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck. The exhibition will be on view March 17 through April 22 with a special reception on Friday, March 24 from 5—9PM.

On view will be a range of new ceramic works by Magdalena Suarez Frimkess. Once described by Art in America as "the most daring sculptor working in Chile," Suarez Frimkess, a self-taught potter, has created a highly personal and idiosyncratic body of solo and collaborative ceramic works since the 1960s. Roughly fashioned and holding tenuously to the idea of function, Suarez Frimkess' pots, cups and pitchers serve as three-dimensional canvases on which she depicts a daily narrative that is as much influenced by history and tradition, as it is by comics and television. Art historical references collide with pop culture, politics and family history as she upends expectations while continuing the long tradition of storytelling through pottery.

Paul Swenbeck combines sculpture, painting, and photography to create installations that have craft, occult and spiritual themes. For nearly 30 years, the artist has been developing a lexicon of material techniques, forms and symbols that his recent work employs with a staggering fluency and precision. Indebted to the allegorical works of Hieronymus Bosch and the mystical paintings of Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Swenbeck also draws inspiration from his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts and the infamous witch trials, as well as the Shaker aesthetic, Wilhelm Reich's theories, the natural landscape and science fiction. Overall, he is invested in a highly abstract symbolism where an interest in image intersects with formal concerns and material play in a deeply satisfying way.

Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (born 1929, Venezuela) lives and works in Venice Beach, California. After studying art at the Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile, Suarez Frimkess came to the United States in 1963 as a fellow at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York. There she met Michael Frimkess, who would become her husband and lifelong artistic collaborator. For more than fifty years, Michael threw pots that Magdalena would then decorate. While never training formally as a potter, Suarez Frimkess also began making her own ceramic sculptures in the 1970s. The Frimkesses work has recently been exhibited at South Willard, David Kordansky and the Hammer Museum, all in Los Angeles. In 2014, the first presentation of Magdalena's solo work was exhibited at White Columns, NY. The collaborative work is included in the following collections: Marer Collection, Scripps College, Claremont, California; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Paul Swenbeck (born 1967, Massachusetts) graduated with a degree in ceramics from Massachusetts College of Art in 1991. His work has been exhibited at The Institute of Contemporary Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and Vox Populi, all Philadelphia; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. In 2013, the artist was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


installation view: Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Paul Swenbeck


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, n.d.
ceramic
2 1/4 x 3 x 2 inches
MSF_2017_01


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, 2004
ceramic
2 x 3 x 2 inches
MSF_2017_04


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, n.d.
ceramic
2 1/4 x 2 1/2 x 2 inches
MSF_2017_06


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, 2013
ceramic
3 x 5 x 3 1/2 inches
MSF_2017_08


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, 2003
ceramic
1 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches
MSF_2017_12


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, 2004
ceramic
2 1/4 x 4 3/4 x 5 inches
MSF_2017_13


Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
Untitled, 2004
ceramic
2 1/4 x 4 3/4 x 5 inches
MSF_2017_13


Paul Swenbeck
Untitled (from the Crinoid series), 2011
ceramic, wire
39 x 18 x 19 inches
PSW 211

Paul Swenbeck
Now Me, 2016
porcelain
2 x 7 x 5 inches
PSW 340


Paul Swenbeck
The Locust, 2016
glazed terracotta
8 3/4 x 14 x 11 inches
PSW 330


Paul Swenbeck
Kemmer, 2016
earthenware
7 x 11 x 8 inches
PSW 336


Paul Swenbeck
The Ether Window, 2012
glazed terracotta and resin
5 x 17 x 15 inches
PSW 227


Paul Swenbeck
The Apparition, 2017
porcelain
15 1/4 x 11 1/4 x 1 inches
PSW 331


Paul Swenbeck
Trouble, 2017
porcelain
15 1/4 x 11 1/4 x 1 inches
PSW 332