Adam Viens

Lives and works in Middletown, CT, USA

Artist statement

2025 represented a shift in my practice. My current work uses primarily just paint, opposed to the mixed media work that preceded it. Previously, the work was material based and heavily driven by the qualities already imbued in particular objects and materials . The work focused on grand narratives: ideas around human progress, evolution of societies and culture, and questions about existence and life itself. Though these themes still remain present, the current work is a bit more inward facing. In 2024 a string of disruptive events occurred. There were multiple impactful deaths, we were forced to move out of our home, a burglary resulted in a major backward step for my business/ livelihood , and I moved my shop and studio all within a couple months. Shortly after this, faced with multiple hospitalizations for various medical issues, dramatic lifestyle changes and a total reevaluation period began. In this time I reflected upon things that I took for granted, things that no longer served me, and things that I always knew and yet seemed to live avoiding. After months away from art-making, I re-entered the studio with new expectations for myself and the work. The studio practice presents itself as a curious contradiction. On one hand it is cathartic; the meditative “flow state” entered when making art provides solace from the constant grind of daily life. At the same time, the process is rigorous, it's a tedious examination of ourselves and what life throws at us. For me art...

Artwork