John Adams on going his own way in Cork's art world
John Adams currently has an exhibition at O'Mahony's in Watergrasshill, Co Cork.
John Adams’s preoccupations are represented in his retrospective exhibition at O’Mahonys in Watergrasshill.
The spacious walls of the pub/restaurant include paintings of turtles executed on corrugated metal, part of a series called Animals Matter. Drawing attention to extinction and the struggles that mammals and animals face, Adams says it’s appropriate that he has painted threatened creatures on material that was dumped as waste.
“I started painting animals on canvas before Covid. But during lockdown, myself and a friend, singer Eve Telford, started cleaning the beaches in Cork Harbour. There was so much rubbish, some of it three feet deep, of fishing tackle and plastic bottles. We barely made a dent on the waste.
"But I noticed some corrugated metal lying around with beautiful colours on it. It occurred to me to try painting on the metal.”
As well as the turtles, Adams has painted iguanas, rhinos and sharks on the metal pieces. They are striking paintings, with colours that include kingfisher blue and rich rust hues.
Adams says he is obsessed with Cork Harbour: “I have done a whole series of paintings of it. I do a lot of sailing around Cork Harbour and I really love it but I’ve been horrified by all the industrial complexes that are being built along it, such as massive pharmaceutical plants.”
When Adams went to see President Michael D Higgins at the Áras in the summer, he presented him with a new painting entitled Black Clouds Over Cork Harbour.
As arts minister in the 1990s, Michael D Higgins visited the Backwater Arts Studio (then on Pine Street in Cork) and spoke to Adams about his work. Adams gave the then-minister one of his abstract paintings.
When Adams contacted the Áras this year, enquiring if the President still had the art work as he wanted to include it in a documentary being made about his career, the artist received word that the President had brought it from Galway to his state residence and that Adams was
welcome to call in.
Apart from the former curator of the Crawford Gallery, Peter Murray, encouraging Adams and buying one of his paintings for the gallery’s collection, the artist says that meeting President Higgins meant a lot to him as he has had virtually no recognition “from anybody in Ireland”.
Originally from Dublin, Cobh-based Adams (59) is something of a maverick. He came to Cork to study art at the Crawford in 1983. But after completing his foundation year, he wasn’t given a place on the fine art course. He spent a year studying art in Limerick.
Critical of art colleges, Adams rails at what he says is their preoccupation with conceptual art. This, he claims, is the same with art gallery curators.
“They’re just obsessed with conceptual installation art these days. They’re not interested in painters any more. It’s really upsetting.”
Adams is grateful for the exhibition at O’Mahonys where he has already sold several paintings.
“It has been a long time since I sold any paintings. I’ve had a dreadful time since 2010. I went from making a living from my art before then to making zero from it. The art market just died a death during the recession. So many galleries closed, especially in Cork.”
Ever-resourceful, Adams makes a living doing Air BnB in the old house he renovated in Cobh, as well as giving art classes.
Located on Rahilly Street, the Artists’ House also hosts cultural events. He also lives there, having used his carpentry skills to do it up after buying it cheaply in 2014.
Adams says that while gallery curators seem to want artists to have a recognisable style, he takes pride in producing a varied body of work that includes portraits, buildings as well as some abstract art.
“I don’t think it should be about style. It’s about what’s in my heart, my soul, what I’m feeling strongly about.
"To me, art is definitely the most expressive way I have of showing my feelings to the world. I’m passionate about a lot of different subjects; architecture, nature and obviously humans are hugely fascinating.”
- John Adams’s exhibition continues until November 30. See www.johnadamsartist.ie
