Bio
A recent transplant to New England, Adam Borges originally hails from much warmer lands, born at the tail end of 1993 in the small town of Andradina in southeastern Brazil. His family immigrated not long after, settling down in the southeast of the United States instead, where he would spend the next two decades in various cities across the lower half of Florida. Adam holds a BFA with Honors in Illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL; however, his focus shifted away from the typically commercial modes of expression emphasized by that program soon after graduation, leading him to a practice that is far more personal and experimental in nature.
In particular, Adam is fascinated with the in-between spaces of life inhabited by his fellow mixed race, genderqueer, and immigrant humans, and his new foray into installation and performance has prompted a search for forms of figurative painting outside the traditional frame, a marriage of two dimensional brushstroke to three dimensional structure that echoes the miscegenation of his heritage. His work has been shown in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, most recently at the Queer Art Collective in Pawtucket, RI and Small Format in Providence, RI.
Adam recently completed the Low Residency MFA program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He currently resides with his partner and their small forest of cats, reptiles, and houseplants in the sleepy suburbs of Warwick, Rhode Island.
For sketches and process images, follow him on Instagram.
About the work
Thought and emotion are generated in the brain through physical means, but because they cannot be seen in their pure chemical form, they are typically thought of as immaterial rather than products of the body. In my work, I take these intangible concepts and interpret them visually through the human figure and symbolic elements. My imagery is drawn from a near obsessive research practice into subjects from theology to the occult to botany, just as much as it comes out of my personal experiences growing up as a queer, mixed race Brazilian in the unmistakable landscape of Florida.
In particular, I often turn towards the mirror in search of a subject, using self-portraiture as a means to process my existence as a liminal being- a person straddling the threshold between ethnicities, genders, and cultures. These portraits reflect imagined possibilities, and in them I am able to live for a time as both the proud immigrant and the open Southerner, the holy martyr and the brazen heretic.
Media experimentation and the art making process itself play a crucial role in my work. Part painting and part installation, each piece is built up through numerous layers of paint, sculpted materials such as wax and plaster, and scavenged or collected specimens, charms, and trinkets, which combine to produce dimensional color and textures that give traditionally flat surfaces a real, physical presence and consequently spark a visceral reaction in the viewer.
CV
BORN
Andradina, São Paulo, Brazil, 1993
LOCATION
Warwick, Rhode Island, USA, 2020-present
Sarasota, Florida, USA, 2012-2020
EDUCATION
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art, June 2020-August 2022
Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL
Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Illustration, August 2012-May 2016
SOLO/TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
“Flesh Home”, Small Format, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
“Chrysalis: Low Residency Masters of Fine Art Thesis Exhibition”, Ann Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2021
Gallery Shop, Queer Art Collective, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
2019
Harvey Milk Festival Exhibition, Art Center of Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida, USA
2018
“Le Salon Tout Inclus”, M. Chapel Projects, Sarasota, Florida, USA
“Tide of Despair”, Oddity Tattoo Studio and Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, USA
“Magnitude Seven Small Works Exhibit”, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
2017
“Everything Under the Florida Sun”, Oddity Tattoo Studio and Gallery, Sarasota, Florida, USA
“Aquachrome”, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati,Ohio, USA
2016
Illustration Thesis Exhibition, Willis Smith Gallery, Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota, Florida, USA
“Best of Ringling”, Christ-Janer Gallery, Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota, Florida, USA
2015
“Illest of Illustration”, Exhibition Hall, Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota, Florida, USA
AWARDS/HONORS
2016
Countess Maria Zichey Scholarship, Ringling College of Art & Design, Sarasota, Florida, USA
TEACHING
Instructor, Art & Frame of Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida, USA, January 2019-June 2020
CONTACT
adamborgesart@gmail.com
WITH INQUIRIES REGARDING...
Commissions
Future freelance/employment opportunities
Featuring my work in a gallery, publication or website