'Ultra-gentle manipulation of delicate structures' by Alicia Adamerovich at Projet Pangée, Montreal

Alicia Adamerovich explores the tensions between strength and fragility, industry and nature, static and breathing. She abstracts feelings in order to produce forms at the cross section of organic and illusory. Elements of science fiction and alienation encroach upon Adamerovich’s practice, ultimately mediated by her desires for connection and provocation. Having spent her adolescence mired in feelings of isolation and brushes with the natural world, she’s taken to exploring her own crafted environments. She plumbs her own psychological depths, weaving internal fabrics into rich biomorphic vistas. 

The paintings for this exhibition are darker, as if they’re slowly moving into the shadows. Vestiges of familiarity persist alongside ambiguous formations. Here she explores structures and the scaffolding of form. Her constructions become fragile protectors of darkness or negative space. They fall just short of tangibility and make the case for imagined futures or mythologized histories. She challenges perception, blocking viewers from complete understanding without rejecting the desire to behold. Her works are catalysts for the imagination, vessels for seeking. 

The paintings are conceived in four to five layers, initially entered through “maybes” and projected desires. Colors develop with each layer and many changes occur in service of getting the lighting just right. Throughout this process, each composition morphs into a specific “mood.” She injects a granular element by introducing pumice and sand into the mix. Surfaces are built up, encoding time and producing a dimensional element. The sculptures reciprocate this gesture. Adamerovich’s emphasis on her surfaces lures the two mediums closer together; she paints on sculptures, and sculpts her paintings. 

Painting is initiated first out of a concern for dry time. The woodworks follow suit and a game of tag ensues: each medium trades off informing and guiding the other. Linework spurs the sculptures into being, then they evolve by way of stacking and building. Adamerovich observes the parallel between these works and the process of drawing, though underscores the distinction between two versus three dimensions. Her sculptures largely emerge from a puzzle-like process through which the final form is gradually revealed. 

Pastel works are the newest addition to Adamerovich’s multimedia practice. This process has become a new way for her to make a drawing in layers. Much like the paintings, this material can be built up to a desirable result. She emphasizes the vitality of illustration in each medium as it provides direct access to the imagination and makes space for an arbitration of ideas. 

Adamerovich maintains flow within her practice, satiating her own appetite for discovery. Agnes Pelton’s symbolism comes to mind when viewing these works as she, too, offered her own projection of quixotic structures and fantastical landscapes. Elsewhere, Kay Sage’s surrealism comes in contact with the structural considerations of Lee Bontecou and Herbert Ferber. Her titles are not necessarily revelatory, though she lodges grains of meaning within them. They become points of access, calculated lenses through which the viewer may inspect the works. Opportunities for perception and interpretation are thus broached again via language, providing one with yet another access point into Adamerovich’s machinated world.