Adam Pendleton

Pendleton’s ability to visually articulate the most pressing sociopolitical issues of our time has garnered widespread acclaim. His talent for blurring the lines between image and text was powerfully demonstrated in the evocative cover he created for The New York Times Magazine’s July 2020 issue, accompanying Isabel Wilkerson’s seminal essay, America’s Enduring Racial Caste System. The cover art overlaid the text of Frederick Douglass’s iconic speech—What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?—onto a 1959 photograph of a young boy witnessing a protest against school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas. Just months later, in the wake of a summer marked by national unrest, Artforum chose Pendleton’s striking image declaring “US” in black and white spray paint for the cover of its Oct/Nov 2020 issue, challenging readers to grapple with the complexities of collective identity.

A celebrated painter, Pendleton’s versatility extends beyond the canvas. He is a true polymath, editing critical anthologies, directing films, and creating site-specific exhibitions and sculptural interventions. His 2017 anthology, Black Dada Reader, was hailed as one of The New York Times’ Best Art Books of the year by then-chief art critic Roberta Smith. In 2021, his solo exhibition Who Is Queen? at the Museum of Modern Art transformed the museum’s atrium with towering black wooden scaffolds that redefined how art could be displayed. The Times’ Siddhartha Mitter praised the show as a radical experiment that “built [its] own museum inside MoMA – an experiment in change from within, offering a radically different method of display from the chronological unfolding of the Modernist canon in the institution’s galleries.”

Pendleton’s dedication to chronicling history is evident in his 2020-22 film Ruby Nell Sales, a compelling portrait of the civil rights icon. When the film was featured in the Whitney Museum’s 2023 Biennial, Barry Schwabsky of The Nation declared it “the biennial’s out-and-out masterpiece,” underscoring Pendleton’s ability to connect past and present through his art.

Pendleton’s commitment to preserving the legacies of influential figures extends to his efforts to honor Nina Simone. In 2017, he joined forces with three other prominent African American artists to purchase Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina. Under Pendleton’s leadership, the home was declared a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and in partnership with tennis legend Venus Williams, he raised nearly five million dollars to protect the site for future generations.

As a keynote speaker, Pendleton captivates audiences with his compelling insights into how art can serve as a catalyst for social change. He intimately brings to life the workings of a contemporary art studio in terms of its practicalities through to its imaginative possibilities.  Pendleton’s work is not just about creating art for the walls of galleries and museums; it is about using art to challenge, disrupt, and ultimately reshape the narratives that define our collective histories and identities.

With exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and works in major public collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pendleton is one of the most significant artists of our time.