SEE ME AFTER CLASS: A spiral bound journey by Adam Greener
The public exhibition explores new and favored works by the artist, highlighting concepts of what it means to grow up through a series of ink illustrations, created on handmade graphic large “spiral bound notebook” sheets. By radically changing the size and scale of a spiral bound notebook, Adam Greener invites the viewer to take a deeper look with the intention of expressing how everything feels LARGER-THAN-LIFE as a child.
Sarcastic comments from an impatient teacher, rejection by the popular girl in class, playground cruelty, or Star Wars characters intruding upon the passage of a secret note; All early experiences — cognitive, social, and emotional — are circumscribed by our cultural iconography and vividly expressed by storyteller and artist, Adam Greener.
He explains, “Growing up, my spiral notebook was my sanctuary. I always struggled with authority and focus; following the rules, doing what I was told, coloring inside the lines, literally and figuratively. And, amidst a swirl of hormones, pressure to fit in, and a veritable lack of control over most aspects of my life (including my parents’ divorce), I — like a lot of kids, I think — felt isolated. My sticker-and-scribble-adorned notebook was a private place — a personal retreat where I could color outside the lines without recrimination, control everything, and be the undisputed master of my own pre-pubescent domain.”
“As a fine artist and storyteller, Adam solidly established the voice of what it means to be a kid. He not only has a way of capturing something nostalgic, but also has a special way of making you laugh about it, even when it's painful,” says Johan Andersson, founder and director of Art Unified. “Exploring views of seemingly every day experiences, the pieces are rich with themes of childhood and also historical context, but with a childlike view. Adam doesn’t create as an adult; he channels his younger self to create a deep narrative— A snapshot into what it means to be an adolescent.”
Adam Greener’s work has caught the attention of a respected list of collectors including Robert Downey, Jr. who has acquired four original works for his home collection. Other collectors include Jason Flom, former CEO of Atlantic and Virgin Records, Casey Cowell, founder of USA Robotics, Phillip Raskind, Partner of William Morris Endeavor, Kate Waisman, the Children’s Director of The Metropolitan of Art Museum in New York and Pat Wilson of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
My pieces are snapshots in time. Some are just nostalgic forays, while others hint at how torturous it can be to grow up. The work is autobiographical, but I hope it triggers people’s own memories about pint-sized crushes, about that soul-crushing C on a book report that represented hours of missed TV time. By blowing up my private scribbles to a massive scale, and heightening the irony, I’m hoping to juxtapose childish naiveté with the very real, heightened emotion and drama that is as real and earth-shattering as anything we feel as grown-ups.”
As a TV producer turned artist, Adam Greener has been a longtime storyteller. As a kid, Adam spent most of every 56-minute class period doodling in his spiral-bound, visual wanderings that often landed him in detention, repeatedly writing “I will not...” In his large-scale loose leaf canvases, seemingly torn from the notebook of a distracted grade-schooler, Adam Greener explores the ways in which the youthful imagination processes the chaotic swirl of social and cultural imagery that seeks to shape, stimulate, and confine it all at once. With his series of ink illustrations, created on handmade "notebook” sheets, he taps into his memories of his early visual preoccupations and re-presents them with a witty and subversive not-so grown-up eye.
Adam’s work has been featured at Scope Miami, LA Art Show, Art Market Hamptons , Art Market San Francisco, Saatchi Gallery London, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Art on Paper, NYC, Art Unified Gallery in Venice. Adam Greener has sold all over the world including Miami and Basel Switzerland and in places like Google Venice. His work always gathers crowds and he sells several pieces per show. His work is innocent, nostalgic and clever as a tongue in cheek reimagining of his childhood which everyone relates to.
