Notes Riverside Art Museum Curator, Andi Campognone-Couwenberg, "This exhibition is the culmination of the exploration and interpretation of the biblical and mythical garden of Eden through the use of non-traditional materials, installation and contemporary use of color. This commentary on our changing landscape (both symbolically and physically) visually explores the future of genetically altered plants and produce and their affects on evolution."

Reflecting on her new work, Lisa comments, "The two new paintings for the Riverside Art Museum are both a continuation and a departure for me. Given That All Things Are Equal and Convocation continue the depiction of a dyspeptic sanctuary, (a term invented by Los Angeles critic James Scarborough) featuring birds and other natural elements, in a nearly netherworld-like environment. The paintings depart from past work only in terms of scale. These are the largest paintings I have ever made, offering the viewer a more complex and elaborate narrative than in past work. Ideas and associations are embedded in objects in a way that makes them not only symbolic but seductive."

Lisa adds, "Amidst the caustic backdrop of my narratives always lie buoyant features--birds, flowers, water and other growing things and these paintings are no exception. Loosely based on observations and imaginary underpinnings inspired by the Salton Sea, these two paintings reflect a serious dichotomy--our love for and destruction of the natural world."

The artist concludes with a poignant message, "What happens when we are not paying attention? What happens when we live in denial? Something like the vision in these paintings happen."

To quote James Scarborough, "…Adams is not so much without hope as much as she has attained a realistic worldview, an accommodation of natural beauty with the good book stricture of Murphy's Law, that, given the chance, everything, human nature being what it is, goes awry."

Links Lisa Adams
Riverside Art Museum