PDX CONTEMPORARY ART is pleased to present Water Color, an exhibition of new paintings by   Portland-based artist Adam Sorensen.  Drawing from a wealth of influences, including references to the Hudson River School painters of the American West, the Romanticism of Caspar David Friedrich, animation aesthetics, and the ukiyo-e traditions of Japanese woodcuts, Adam  Sorensen’s paintings are deeply tied to the reality of the landscape, but are imbued with enough imagination to make them otherworldly.  Mottled prismatic skies, misty waterfalls, and chromatic vistas mingle with emptiness and desolation. These uninhibited landscapes allude to places that have come before us or those who will come after us. The paintings become a lens through which to view our ever-changing yet continuously sublime natural world.  Also included in the exhibition are a series of geometric abstractions. Sorensen began these process-driven paintings during the pandemic lockdown. Focusing on this systematic practice was a strategy to  continue the physical act of working and a way of exploring new imagery.  

A conversation with Adam Sorensen and Sara Krajewski, the Portland Art Museum’s Robert and  Mercedes Eichholz Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, will take place at the gallery on  Thursday, September 22nd, from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm. The talk will begin at 6:00 pm. Please RSVP for the  conversation at info@pdxcontemporaryart.com. 

Adam Sorensen received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Alfred University in New York and a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in painting from the Studio Art International, Florence, Italy. His work has been  featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including shows at PDX CONTEMPORARY ART  (Portland, OR), Whatcom Museum (Bellingham, WA), Archer Gallery (Vancouver, WA), Worksound  (Portland, OR), and the Newberg Gallery at the Glasgow School of Art (Glasgow, Scotland). In 2011,  Sorensen had a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum in the APEX project space. 

Sorensen’s work is included in several public collections, including: Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR),  Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA), Seattle University (Seattle, WA), Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID), Meta  Open Arts (Bellevue, WA) Westfalisches Industriemuseum, Glashutte Gernheim (Germany), The CW (Los  Angeles, CA), 4Culture (Seattle, WA), Oregon Health and Science University (Portland, OR), and The  Nines, A Luxury Collection Hotel (Portland, OR), Astoria Cafe (Astoria, OR) as well as the private  collections of: JoAnn Hickey, Driek Zirinsky, Richard Levy, Chris Greenman, Mary Ellen Hockensmith and  Michael McCulloch, Mary Dick, and Lori Uddenberg. In 2017, Sorensen completed a fifteen foot  commission for the US State Department, American Institute in Taiwan. 

Among the publications that have featured Sorensen’s work are Artforum, Juxtapoz, Willamette Week,  Beautiful Decay, Hi-Fructose, The Oregonian, PORT, art ltd., The Huffington Post, Visual Art Source, New  American Paintings, Portland Mercury, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 

The Work: 

• Oil paintings on linen and on paper  

• Landscape paintings that reference western sublime painting and Japanese woodblock  prints  

• Lightly painted watery rills, lakes, and rivers with brilliant, prismatic color palettes  • Abstracted geometric paintings on linen 

The Artist: 

• Lives and works in Portland, Oregon  

• In the permanent collections of Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID), Portland Art Museum  (Portland, OR), Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA), and Westfalisches Industriemuseum  (Germany), among others  

• Completed a commission for Meta Open Arts in Bellevue, WA  

• Completed a fifteen foot commissioned painting for the US State Department, American  Institute in Taiwan  

• Commissioned by Trimet to make an outdoor mural for the Orange Line in Portland, OR

HOURS: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, Tuesday – Saturday, and by appointment  

ADMISSION: Free 

Adam Sorensen, Sigmu, 2022, oil on linen, 40” x 44”