Adam Hillman: Pencil Pusher For Discount

6 color screenprint on French 100lb cover, 24 x18 , 2017

Pencil Pusher is a photograph that is a part of my Arrangements series, a collection of photos which utilize handmade alterations such as cutting, drawings, and placement to push the boundaries of the formal potential of everyday objects. The geometric patterning, bold colors, and flatness of these images harkens to modernist movements such as Minimalism and Neo-plasticism, both continuing their legacies and subverting their intentions through banal materials and visual wordplay. In this vein, the pulsating, hand drawn line-work in Pencil Pusher evokes Frank Stella s Black Series, but the utilization of a mass-produced pencil and line paper offer a surrealist bend. This elevates the generic stationary beyond their ordinary uses, implying there is more to them than What you see is what you see.

Adam Hillman is a multimedia artist and art historian working in drawing, painting, and photography. Best known for his Arrangements series, he organizes and photographs everyday objects into geometric patterns inspired by 20th century artistic styles such as Minimalism and the unabashed patterning of Outsider Art. Built on subversive wordplay, optical illusionism, and vibrant colors, they are equally conceptually and aesthetically rigorous, utilizing tropes such as visual puns which are almost entirely unseen in contemporary art.