Adam Handler American, b. 1986
"Within these intimate confines I feel free to experiment with new concepts. Many of the tiny works on display represent a purging of my thoughts, passions, insecurities, nightmares and dreams.” - Adam Handler
Adam Handler, born in Queens - NY, creates dynamic works that express naive chaos through themes of loneliness, imagination, solitude and connection. Handler studied life drawing in Italy and has shown works at exhibitions all around the world, from New York to Seoul. As Adam describes, “when these styles of works that you see were conceived I specifically turned off my mind and allowed only emotion, actions and spirit to guide the works.” This is exemplified in the bold, bright strokes that Handler employs.
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Bubble Ghost, 2024 -
Ghost Abduction In The Mall During 1991, 2024
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Ghost Bone And Girl, 2024
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Ghost Buddy Abduction Where The Yellow Flowers Live, 2023
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Little Stinker Girl In The Dark Woods, 2023
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Little Stinker Girls at Night Wedding, 2023
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Outside In Summer, 2024
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Radiant Wolf with UFO Ghost Abduction, 2023
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Spanish Girl Pointing out the UFO Abduction, 2022
"Being a biographical painter, my work has always been a mirror of the events that have taken place in my life. My pieces are a reflection of personal events which have transpired as well as influences from those around me and the artists who have inspired me." - Adam Handler
Childlike simplicity, quirky, colorful, primitive––these are just a few words to describe the extraordinary talent of New York-born painter Adam Handler. His recognizable characters such as bats, ghosts, and wide-eyed girls embody innocence and adolescent energy that the very best of artists will tell you is close to impossible to render with fresh authenticity. Pablo Picasso said it best: “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
Using acrylic paint, oil stick, pencil, and markers, Handler’s child-like and passionate drawing technique produces distinctive outlined characters which almost appear flat, with little to no depth of field. The backgrounds of his works are highly detailed, but rough, vigorously drawn with scratches and markings that appear to spill over the edge of the canvas, conveying a hurried and improvised feeling. Willem De Kooning’s works provided Handler with an “ah-ha” moment: a figure does not have to look like a figure, but can rather reflect the qualities of one. Handler’s large-scale imaginative figures connect viewers to a feeling of warm nostalgia, or even a sense-memory from days long ago.
