Adam Sorensen: "Tabernacle" the cover of Willamette Week
"At the Apex
With his fantastical landscape paintings, Adam Sorensen is on the cusp of breakout success.
ADAM SORENSEN IN HIS STUDIO
IMAGE: Christine Taylor
For artists who have made it in Oregon—and by almost any criteria Adam Sorensen has—the next question is: Can success here lead to success outside the Portland bubble? For Sorensen, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. The 35-year-old painter is an overnight success more than a decade in the making, with artistic irons in the fire both locally and nationally.
Sorensen’s new show at the Portland Art Museum, APEX: Adam Sorensen, showcases six new oil paintings, among them the largest painting of his career. That work, a behemoth called Tabernacle, is nearly 7 feet high and 10 feet wide: a fantastical mountain landscape with no human beings in sight, the peaks and rolling hills dotted with glowing rocks, the valleys limpid with waterfalls, rivers and lakes. It’s an Edenic paradise in danger of being discovered and despoiled. You can easily picture a real-estate developer sizing up the scene: “Ah, put a strip mall over here, a condo tower there, a Macaroni Grill in the valley, and parking lots everywhere!” The looming threat of exploitation lends the vistas a sense of the sinister. (A small portion of the painting appears on the cover of this issue.)
“The colors I use have all these bright and joyful connotations,” Sorensen says, “but overall, the paintings don’t give off a sunny feeling. There’s a sort of eeriness that comes through.”
Sorensen’s gallerist, Jane Beebe of PDX Contemporary Art, sums up Tabernacle more dramatically: “It’s operatic! When you see it, you’ll faint!”
Born in Chicago, the artist grew up in Gettysburg, Pa., eventually moving to upstate New York to study art at Alfred University. In 1999 he followed two fellow Alfred alums to Portland, attracted to the accessibility of the art scene and the proximity to the majestic Cascades, which fuel his work. After being represented by Elizabeth Leach for several years, he moved to PDX Contemporary, where he works a day job as gallery assistant. This past year, his work has become noticeably more visible outside Oregon, with an exhibition in San Antonio, representation in Seattle at the Jim Harris Gallery, and a major piece sold last September to the Boise Art Museum. He is also a finalist for a $25,000 grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, named after the late abstract expressionist.
“I’ve definitely had the opportunity to concentrate more lately,” he says. “It’s gotten more serious. I feel like I’m finally an established regional artist, and now, the next opportunity exists outside the Northwest.” He pauses with a modesty that belies his upward trajectory, then adds, “We’ll see how that works.” RICHARD SPEER.
SEE IT: APEX: Adam Sorensen at Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 226-2811, portlandartmuseum.org. Closes Jan. 1, 2012."