NEW YORK, NY.- Sean Kelly announced representation of Lindsay Adams.
Lindsay Adams, born in 1990 in Washington, D.C., is a visual artist whose practice is focused on painting and drawing. Employing her educational foundation as a social scientist, with a background in foreign relations, sociology, and cultural anthropology, her work systematically engages with precise critical analysis and a perceptive understanding of the complex fabric of social dynamics. Lindsay received BAs from the University of Richmond in both International Studies: World Politics and Diplomacy and Spanish, she has an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Embracing her intersectional identity, Lindsay’s work serves as a reflection of self, exploring personal and collective histories and the role imagination plays in mining the complexities and nuances of life. Her current body of work is a conceptual investigation of the balance between the known and the possible, examining themes of place, liberation, expanse, and freedom. Each mark intuitively invites a dialogue between reality and dreaming, as she mines through layers of gesture and color to build worlds. Adams alternates between abstract and representational forms, employing formal techniques that highlight the physicality of paint and the delicacy of gesture. In this way, she weaves multiple paintings within one, crafting a rich tapestry informed by interconnected experiences that invites reflection on the boundlessness of dreaming. Her work highlights her interest in constructing imagined ecologies—spaces in which rhythmic gestures and dynamic hues engage in a continuous dialogue.
Lindsay Adams had her inaugural exhibition with the gallery at Sean Kelly, Los Angeles in January 2025. On joining the gallery, Adams said, “I’m honored to join Sean Kelly Gallery, a program committed to vision, creativity, and artists who continually push the boundaries of their practice. This marks a pivotal moment for me—an opportunity to deepen the questions I’m asking, expand the scope of the work, and grow within a dynamic community that challenges and inspires.”
Sean Kelly, states, “We are delighted to welcome Lindsay to the gallery. Her work is deeply thoughtful, formally rigorous, and profoundly moving—rooted in a nuanced understanding of identity, history, and imagination. Lindsay brings a powerful new voice to the program, and we are honored to support her as she continues to expand her artistic vision.”
Adams was awarded the Helen Frankenthaler Award in 2024 and the New Artist Society Merit Award in 2023. Her work has been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. and is held in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art and Northwestern Law School. In 2025, Adams was commissioned by the Obama Presidential Center for a public installation titled Weary Blues, reimagining one of her gestural, gem-colored abstract paintings. Named after the Langston Hughes poem of the same name, the work integrates visual art and Black literary legacy into a communal café space. Currently, Adams is an Artist-in-residence at the World Trade Center through Silver Art Projects.
Lindsay Adams is represented by Sean Kelly, New York/Los Angeles in collaboration with PATRON Gallery, Chicago.
