Contributed by Amanda Church / Marina Adams has long been exploring the range of allusions that can be conjured by various color combinations and the scale and placement of simple shapes, which press up and vibrate against each other in subtle, sexy ways. Curvy configurations, interspersed with diamonds and triangles, hint at myriad aspects of nature and the female form. In Adams’ current show “Cosmic Repair” at Timothy Taylor, variations on this trajectory continue in nine paintings, all new and acrylic on linen except Singing to the Highest Deity from 2020 hanging by itself in the back room. Influences range from Matisse to, according to the press release, “Uzbek textiles, Indigenous American Southwest pottery, and the Great Pyramids.”
Adams also has a clear connection to the Color Field painters, particularly the nestled forms of Friedel Dzubas and the early work of Jules Olitski, as well as to Minimalists like John McLaughlin, whose streamlined stripes evoke so much so simply. Apart from the burnt browns and ochres of Out of the Ashes, Adams’ palette is radiantly bright and luminous – lit from within like stained glass. Highly saturated blues figure prominently, lending a sea-and-sky feel to the paintings despite their vertical axis. Someone Has Walked This Way Before (for Lorenzo Thomas) is the most overtly landscape-oriented piece in the show, with its bottom band of blue and the wavy rust color at the top suggesting sunlight.
The show’s title contemplates a world in bad shape and in dire need of an overhaul, but almost all the work exudes optimism and joy. Many of the paintings’ titles are elegiac or politically tinged. NO KINGS, for example, refers to a series of protests against the current administration’s authoritarian policies, reminding us that power belongs to the people. Yet these are by no means political paintings writ large. Rather, with her titles, Adams is posing an intriguing dichotomy between activism and art, which might otherwise be difficult to glean from such indisputably beautiful work. these paintings present a resolutely upbeat front in the face of universal turmoil. This seems both gratifying and worth striving for even – perhaps especially – in such adverse circumstances. —
In a 2022 conversation with Martha Tuttle in Bomb magazine, Adams noted that “the best abstract work is in the realm of realism,” which implies that abstraction ideally touches on the real world. She creates spaces to which to escape and momentarily bask in beauty, like patches of sun in a shadowy world. Fredrik Backman wrote in his latest novel My Friends that “art is empathy.” Adams recognizes this and that painting can offer immeasurably more.
“Marina Adams: Cosmic Repair,” Timothy Taylor, 74 Leonard Street, New York, NY. Through October 25, 2025.
About the author: Amanda Church is a painter and occasional writer living and working in NYC, where she is represented by High Noon Gallery.
