Vaginal Davis and Philadelphia Wireman
May 3–June 1, 2013

Adams and Ollman is pleased to present a two-person exhibition featuring Vaginal Davis and Philadelphia Wireman, on view from May 3 through June 1. An opening reception will be held at the Portland, Oregon gallery on Friday, May 3 from 6–9pm.

Vaginal Davis’ paintings of women on cardboard, match boxes, and cereal boxes are made using glycerin, tempera, watercolor pencils, food coloring, mascara, and nail polish, along with materials identified by the artist as the discontinued Britney Spears makeup line, Afro Sheen and Aqua Net Super Hold hair spray. Her small works are ghost-like and totemic, equal parts self-portrait, homage to movie stars, and imagined women of bygone eras. According to the artist, they depict "women trapped in the bodies of women." An economy of marks form pouty red lips and stylized facial contours that call to mind fashion magazines and idealized feminine beauty. This series of intimate paintings, along with porn, magazine clippings and other ephemera, densely cover the walls and surfaces of Davis’ Berlin studio, The Cheese Endique Trifecta.

Vaginal Davis, quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Doll, there is no biography of me," was born in Los Angeles in the shadows of Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers. An originator of the homo-core punk movement and a queer icon, Davis is a performance artist, painter, independent curator, composer, writer, and musician. Recent exhibitions include: Hag – small, contemporary, haggard, Participant Inc., New York; My Pussy is Still in Los Angeles (I Only Live in Berlin), Getty/Pacific Standard Time, Los Angeles; Vaginal Davis is Speaking From the Diaphragm, Camp/Anti-Camp –A Queer Guide to Everyday Life, Berlin; Tenderloin-Der Glock von der Lied, Antony’s Meltdown Festival, London; Memory Island, Tate Modern, London; and Dejecta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The artist is based in Berlin, where she curates and hosts the monthly performative film event, Rising Stars, Falling Stars, Arsenal Institut für- Film und Videokunst.

Davis’ works will be presented alongside by a group of wire and found material assemblages by the Philadelphia Wireman. Wireman’s bundles consist of different gauges of wire wrapped around everyday objects and materials including food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, batteries, pens, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewelry. Their maker, who remains unidentified, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through his selection and transformation of ordinary materials. The pieces are often compared to African power objects and other ritualized, vernacular traditions, but resonate equally with historical and contemporary art practices. 

This collection of some 1200 pieces, found on the street in Philadelphia in the late 1970s, is now regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art. The artist’s works are in major museum collections and have been shown widely throughout the United States and Europe, most recently in Everyday Abstract - Abstract Everyday, James Cohan, New York; B. Wurtz & Co., Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles; The Medicine Bag, Maccarone Gallery, New York; Approaching Abstraction, the American Folk Art Museum, New York; and Things That Do, Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia.

installation view: Vaginal Davis and Philadelphia Wireman


installation view: Vaginal Davis and Philadelphia Wireman


installation view: Vaginal Davis and Philadelphia Wireman


Vaginal Davis
Light Blue Eugenie DeGuerin, 2012
Britney Spears eye shadow, Wet n Wild nail polish, Afro Sheen Hair Conditioner, Aqua Net Extra Hold Hair Spray, water color pencils, and glycerine on Cornflakes box
10 5/8 x 7 1/4 inches
VD6


Vaginal Davis
Lilly Bart/Edith Wharton, 2012
Britney Spears eye shadow, Wet n Wild nail polish, Afro Sheen Hair Conditioner, Aqua Net Extra Hold Hair Spray, water color pencils, and glycerine on matchbook
2 x 3 15/16 inches
VD17


Vaginal Davis
Valeska Gert and Harper Lee, 2013
Princess Marcella Borghese eye shadow, Wet n Wild nail polish, Sally Hansen nail tip polish, Afro Sheen Hair Conditioner, Aqua Net Ultra Strength Hair Spray, pommade, glycerin and glue on Cornflakes box
7 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches
VD21


Philadelphia Wireman
Untitled (wire, brown bag, yellow wire), c. 1970–1975
wire, found objects
4 1/2 inches high
PW377

Philadelphia Wireman
Untitled (red reflector, battery), c. 1970–1975
wire, found objects
3 1/2 x 3 x 2 1/4 inches
PW1028


Philadelphia Wireman
Untitled (white plastic barrett, wire, foil), c. 1970-1975
wire, found objects
3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
PW423


Philadelphia Wireman
Untitled (wire, yellow tape and ink), c. 1970–1975
wire, found objects
4 1/2 x 1/2 x 1 inches
PW776