b. 1970 New York City, New York

Lives and works in Northern California, USA, London, UK, and Grenada, West Indies.

Description of work

Frederika Adam’s work captures light, form, colour and texture abstracted to reveal something exceptional in the everyday environment.

[Sound bite: Abstract photography that looks like painting.] 

Working with a camera lens to produce abstract images draws our attention to the nature of cognitive perception. Using a rectangular view finder to capture a composition is synonymous in training as both a painter and a photographer. Adam uses realism like a found object that the four edges excise and then the image is extracted by pushing and pulling away the realism to reveal something exceptional about the subject.  

Artists statement

Adam’s work for the Grenada Pavilion is a photographic series of plants – each one a “foreigner” – non-indigenous – to Grenada.  These “stranieri” plants have a history – provenance – that may be documented or are generally understood to have been introduced to Grenada during particular periods in history.  The Pre-Colonial plants migrated over centuries from South America most likely care of the Amerindians and Caribs as well as some seeds that survived and established miraculously after floating to Grenada from other islands or continent.  During the Colonial period, the majority of the plants associated with the Caribbean today arrived from Africa and the Far East brought by European ships. The incredible journeys made by these plants to settle in Grenada continues today with new plants being introduced to Grenada by individuals with a particular interest in establishing personal gardens or commercial nurseries. A closer investigation into Grenada’s indigenous and non-indigenous botanical history – common but unique from other Caribbean islands – raises questions as to what constitutes Caribbean Nature and reveals that most plants we associate with the Caribbean are “foreigners”.

Short Biography

Frederika Adam studied photography and painting at the University of Michigan followed by graduate work in Renaissance and Post-War British art history in the UK. Adam has been visiting Grenada regularly since 2010.