Anne Adams
MFA 2024, Ceramics
Anne Adams is a multidisciplinary artist. She is from Southern Kaduna State of Nigeria. Adams references the rich cultural heritage of the Nok people, an ancient civilization discovered in 1928 in parts of Kaduna, where some of the earliest form of terracotta sculptures found in Sub Saharan Africa (made around 1500 BC), were excavated from the artist hometown in Zonkwa. As a descendant with direct kinship to this historically significant region, her work becomes a poignant reflection on the intersections of personal/cultural identity and the lost narrative of an era, simultaneously confronting the shadows cast by the legacy of colonialism and imperialism, and acknowledging its resulting complexities and disruptions through research, technical processes, material and reimagination.
Her sculptures are anthropomorphic, capturing the intersections of time and space in a postmodern world. Adams’s practice investigates and explores hybridity, reflecting on the nuances of identity and identity formation within a postcolonial, posthuman and postfeminist framework. In her work, she sees the potential for everything to be and exist in multiples, embracing plurality and rejecting monolithic/homogenous narratives of truth, reason and identity. In this way, she creates work that embodies transcending and evolving in-between dimensions of the past, present and future, human/nonhuman, abstract and figural, self and the other. The installation of her work is very crucial in the way she envisions critical dialogue with Art made by Africans, it challenges the ambiguous categorization and western methodologies of engaging with art from the continent. In her installation, sculptures are seen standing gallantly above water surrounded by natural elements or bordered by a myriad of lines that intuitively respond to the liminal space.
She is interested in the histories of people, cultural practices, cultural redefinition, and hybridization as a means of sustainability in the evolution and trajectory of societies. Drawing inspiration from the legacy of precolonial Nigerian art, her work is a celebration of the profound mastery and intellectual ingenuity of her predecessors, whose use and intentionality are still enigmatic and open to interpretation, which itself is a mirror for the artist to story tell and imagine possible futures.
![Installation shots, In-Between Being, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/8a8c8597-61ae-4c42-a7ba-6f2a8036d0a6/Adams_01.jpeg)
Installation shots, In-Between Being, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Installation shots, In-Between Being, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/53f735fb-83bd-4535-ac9f-c9732491f195/Adams_02.jpeg)
Installation shots, In-Between Being, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Installation shots, In-Between Being, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/f1b90eae-4714-4492-b778-a3cf70ea67a7/Adams_03.jpeg)
Installation shots, In-Between Being, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Outpouring, 2023 Ceramics and ceramic beads. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/6bdda62e-6da4-4c50-bf45-4713775d3dc9/Adams_04.jpeg)
Outpouring, 2023 Ceramics and ceramic beads. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![There are so many ways to fall in love again, 2023, Ceramics and ceramic beads. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/d7487d23-a9d7-455d-ba13-18d2773a29f0/Adams_05.jpeg)
There are so many ways to fall in love again, 2023, Ceramics and ceramic beads. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Bronze Guardian, 2023 Ceramics and ceramic beads, pearls. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/b91f0cdc-91ea-492f-93ec-7ba89573ac90/Adams_06.jpeg)
Bronze Guardian, 2023 Ceramics and ceramic beads, pearls. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Four directions, 2023 Ceramics, ceramic beads, pearls, oyster shells blacksmith metal and jute rope. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/2475dc31-a93f-4bbb-bab0-fe4c12b4f659/Adams_07.jpeg)
Four directions, 2023 Ceramics, ceramic beads, pearls, oyster shells blacksmith metal and jute rope. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![A congregation of elders, Ceramics, metal, installation shot, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/30be1c8a-6d6d-4139-a03d-2949a4fc35e6/Adams_08.jpeg)
A congregation of elders, Ceramics, metal, installation shot, 2024. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Installation shot of Kuyet, 2024, Ceramics. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/9e6a706e-7827-45db-a983-9c00bb4dc6b0/Adams_09.jpeg)
Installation shot of Kuyet, 2024, Ceramics. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
![Installation shot of stubborn goat, 2024, Ceramics. Photo Credit: Neighboring States](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f3c104daf9e6f2b7d93ecc0/3b9b4dfd-d1ce-49ef-a663-66a0a2157174/Adams_10.jpeg)
Installation shot of stubborn goat, 2024, Ceramics. Photo Credit: Neighboring States
Anne Adams
Anne Adams (born 1993) is a multidisciplinary artist from Nigeria. She received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In recent years, Adams has participated in shows in the USA, UK, France and Nigeria. She has participated in acclaimed residences including Haystack Mountain school of craft open studio residency and Watershed center for the ceramic art.
Adams has shown in Fairs including Art X Lagos and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London. She is a recipient of the NCECA Multicultural fellowship 2023 and Simone Leigh Zenobia award 2023. She was recognized by The Lagos State Government, as one of the 100 women making a change in Lagos, Nigeria for her contribution to the arts.
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Website: anneadams.com
Instagram: @anneadams_