Cedric Adams

Cedric Adams

Lady Locks

Graphite on paper

29.5 x 22.5 in.

Photograph: Tony Maher

Image details below, click to enlarge

CEDRIC ADAMS who is best known for his meticulous drawings, looks to life around him for the subjects of his works, which currently feature portraits of African American men and women that are, he explains “a visual reaffirmation of how we see ourselves.”

When he was thirteen, Cedric Adams and his family moved to Compton, LA, from rural Texas. The year was 1966, just months after the Watts Rebellion had ignited the explosion of communality and creativity that become the Watts Renaissance.  

“I was like a sponge from the woods of the South absorbing the Blackness and culture of the Black community. To be among that many Black people, to see that many Black images on billboards, of afros, in advertisements, on telephone poles... [it was] a re-seeing of Black as beautiful." 

Mentored by artists Wes Hall, Raymond Lark, John Outterbridge, William Pajaud, and Charles White; and influenced by peers Willie Middlebrook and Richard Wyatt Jr.; Cedric Adams “found new self-awareness and the courage to open up and express that.”

While he is as concerned with illusion and texture as a Northern Renaissance master, Adams sees his skill as a vehicle for something else, which he names “Elements of Blackness.”

"It's hard to be a Black man and come up in this country and not be angry. As a young artist, IN A PERFECT WORLD, I would have loved to have focused more on human interest subject matter: a leaf, a wild turkey on her nest, or a wild sour dock field, but you need a relaxed mind to do that. My immediate environment was not conducive to such privilege. In the world I came up in there was watching your back.” 

“Early on [my work] was a vehicle for the expression of anger against injustices, against the target set on young Black men's backs. There were few, if any, light, or medium values within my work. Only heavy, dark values. Currently, with continued injustices and the Black Lives Matter movement, I will continue to VISUALLY speak out against injustices, while as a more mature artist I will delve deeper into self-expression as one who's spent a life on paper".

Cedric Adams

Twists

Graphite on paper

14 x 11 in.

Photograph: Tony Maher

Image details below, click to enlarge

CEDRIC ADAMS was born in Gilmer, Texas. He attended Compton Community College, CSU Long Beach, and CSU Fullerton. His work has been exhibited across the United States, including at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Watts Towers Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA; Ohio Historical Center, Columbus, OH; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH; FDG Gallery, N.Y.; Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio; Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona, CA; Angel's Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA; Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA; San Bernardino County Museum of Art, CA; and the National Afro-American Museum, Wilberforce, OH.

Cedric Adam’s drawings are held in the collections of, among others, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Afro American Museum and Cultural Center, the Broadway Federal Savings Bank, Watts Health Center; and the Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Corporations.