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Mac Adams

Biography

Presentation

As far back as 1968, Mac Adams was giving new life to the narrative photography. In black and white, his first collection was called Mysteries, and told crime stories.

During those days, with Conceptual Art and Minimalism, art was being rebuilt and was about those factors that came from outside the work itself: pieces of evidence, documents, and auxiliary information. In response to this movement, Mac Adams introduced the idea of fiction into his photographs. While a participant in Conceptual art thinking, he reacted in a different way: in his narratives, everything is inside the picture, all the information is immediately accessible. Years later, other artists, such as Cindy Sherman would follow this same inclination.

That appropriation of the mass marketed thriller genre is an attempt to make the Semiotics of Roland Barthes more accessible to a broader audience. Dealing with criminality is also a way to understand human behavior through its depravity.

The social component is glaringly exposed in Mac Adams' work. And it is also worth noting that Mac Adams was born and studied in Wales, where there is a lively oral tradition, and local myths and tales mix the ordinary with the fantastic.

At first, Mac Adams created environments, setting up three-dimensional scenarios that were the sets for incidents - often violent - that might have taken place. Quickly, his installations turned into pictures, meticulously staged photographs. The process is cinematographic as much as photographic. The audience's view is guided and a near theatrical synopsis is created that puts as much information as possible into the image. Mac Adams is the director of actors and a set that he brings together for the moment when the picture is taken. Diptychs or a broken mirror effect are techniques he uses to demonstrate the passage of time: before and after. Clues are shown and the story is told.

In those days, Brice Marden's monochromatic diptychs impressed Mac Adams by the way he used an optical effect to put meaning between each panel. Mac Adams would take that process and use the diptychs to tell a story.

For him, though, the direct narrative of a police investigation is less interesting than an open story that makes possible different interpretations. He always starts with something made up and created in a medium other than paper. The story then exists before being transcribed, and there will be no special effects or touch-ups. The moment the camera shoots the picture one reality gives way to another, and it is the photograph that restores unity to the narration. As such, Mac Adams is like the artist who paints from nature: he is a witness to the scenario.

The witness is creator, and the viewer can only interpret what he sees in contradictory ways. The viewer becomes the new witness, lost in the multitude of elements that are both connected and distinct. As the viewer becomes an intimate of the story, he is witness and voyeur, spectator and participant. Mac Adams attacks the power of the picture and the manipulations of the picture-maker. He exposes the way meaning is distorted and controlled. What seems clear from the portrayal of a given reality is never the reality itself. It is the viewer who recreates the crime - if ever there was one.

Mac Adams is playing a game of the absurd and the rational with the ambiguous notion of reality. He speaks to that place, hard to define, found between what we see and what we know exists. Furthermore, his work is a reflection on the idea of art itself, on what it portrays, and on the place art holds which is in question here. Mac Adams work is a kind of suspended narration in which the spectator takes the primary role composing the story. His later work reveals these same concerns.

Biography

Mac Adams Born in Brynmawr, Wales. Lives and works in Montclair, New Jersey.

Education

Cardiff College of Art, N.D.D, 1961-66

A.T.D, 1966-67

Rutgers University, Master of Fine Arts, 1967-69

Awards

New York State Fellowship for the Arts (Sculpture), 1988

National Endowment Fellowship for the Arts (Sculpture), 1982

Berlin Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Berliner Kunstlerprogram, 1981

National Endowment Fellowship for the Arts, 1980

National Endowment Fellowship for the Arts, 1976

Expositions personnelles (sélection)

2011

Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Monoco

gb agency, Paris

2010

The Narrative Void, Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon sur-Saone.

2008

Art Premiere (avec Dominique Petitgand), Basel Art Fair 39, Basel.

2007

07-70, gb agency, Paris.

2006

Mens Rea, CEAAC, Strasbourg.

2005

Life Force, sculpture commissioned by University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey

2004

Couvent des Cordeliers, Musée de Châteauroult, Châteauroult

sauf lundi, Florence Diemer, Paris

2002

&: gb agency, Paris.

Résonnances, projet pour le château de Blois, Images au Centre

2001

Mac Adams, Centre Photographique d'Ile de France, Pontault-Combault

2000

Serge Aboukrat Editions, Paris

1998

Silence of Shadows, Cardiff Arts Trust, exposition itinérante, Grande-Bretagne

1997

Todd Gallery, Londres, Grande-Bretagne

Mac Adams & Michael Snow, Stux Gallery, New York City

1996

Exposition monographique, Mai de Reims, Reims

1994

Galerie Froment & Putman, Paris

1993

Art Awareness, Lexington, New York City

1992

John Gibson Gallery, New York City

Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japon

1990

Sable CasteIIi Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York City

Farideh Cadot Gallery, New York City

1988-89

La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California

Saxon/Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Montclair State College, Montclair, New Jersey

1987

Farideh Cadot Gallery, New York City

Galerie Maier-Hahn, Düsseldorf, Allemagne

1985

Sable/Castelli Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Galasso Fine Art, Ossining, New York City

1984

Galerie Arlogos, Nantes, France

Hammerskjold Plaza Sculpture Garden, New York City

Dead End, a collaborative installation with architect Henry Smith Miller & performer Peter Gordon for Creative Time, Inc., New York City

Freidus/Ordover Gallery, New York City

1979-80

Welsh Arts Council of Great Britain, exposition itinérante

Installation, Drew University, New Jersey

1979

Hal Bromm Gallery, New York City

Tomusulo Gallery, Union College, New Jersey

Galerie Maier-Hahn, Düsseldorf, Allemagne.

1978

Installation, Sala Polivalente of the Palazzo Dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italie

Studio G7 Ginevra Grigolo, Bologna, Italie

Francoise Lambert, Milan, Italie

John Gibson Gallery, New York City

Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, Grande-Bretagne

1977

Galerie Maier-Hahn, Düsseldorf, Allemagne

Museum of Art, University of Iow

Galerie Yaki Kornblit, Amsterdam, Hollande

1976

John Gibson Gallery, New York City

Studio 46, Piergiorio Firinu, Turin.

Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, Grande-Bretagne.

1974

112 Greene Street, New York City

1969

Douglass College, Rutgers University.

Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, New Jersey.

Expositions collectives (sélection)

2011

The Eye is a Lonely Hunter: Images of Human Kind, 4th edition of the Fotofestival Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg

Bang! Bang!, CCA, Palma de Mallorca

2010

Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Krimiseries, Museum London, London.

2009

Nord, Nord-Ouest, gb agency, Paris

2008

Sept ans de réflexion, Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon sur Saône

Animations / Fictions, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucarest

(sous réserve), Maison du Geste et de l'Image, Paris

2007

Photographie : détrônera la peinture, Dépôt du Centre Pompidou, Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon sur Saône

2006

Les Peintres de la vie moderne, Donation - Collection photographique de la Caisse des Dépôts, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris

Noir, c'est la vie, Abbaye Saint- André, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Meymac

2005

L'inquiétante étrangeté des objets, Oeuvres du Frac Ile-de-France, Musée Gatien-Bonnet, Lagny-sur-Marne

2003

Passerelles, MK2, Paris

Récentes acquisitions, FRAC Basse Normandie, Caen

Perception déstabilisée, Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

A mains nues, FRAC Haute Normandie, Rouen

2002

Objets de réflexion, FRAC Ile de France, Le Plateau, Paris

Photographier, Hotel de Caumont, Collection Lambert, Avignon

2001

Affinités narratives, gb agency, Paris

Azerty, Centre Pompidou, Paris

2000

Openends-Sets and Situations, MOMA, New York City

1999

Extraetordinaire, Le Printemps de Cahors, Cahors

1998

Chemical Traces - Photography and Conceptual Art 1968-1998, Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull

Mysterious Voyages, Exploring the subject Photography, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore

10 ans de Commandes Publiques, CEAAC, Strasbourg

1997

Cause and Defect, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York City

Shadow Traffic, E.S. Vandam, New York City

1996

Mai de la Photo, Question de Genres, Reims

Espaces Critiques, FRAC Basse-Normandie, Caen

Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, UK

1995

Bit by Bit, Post photographic Imaging, Hunter College Gallery, New York City

Intimacy, National Arts Club, New York City

Words, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, Grande-Bretagne, itinérance à Fringe Gallery, Glasgow

1994

Conceptual Photography 11, John Gibson Gallery, New York City

1993

Multiple Images, Photographs since 1965 from the Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Working with Tradition, The Academic Artist, curated by Donald Kuspit, Burchfield Center, Buffalo, Nny

Works from the Permanent Collection and New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Monumental Properganda, Courtyard Gallery, World Financial Center.

Chance Choice and Irony, Todd Gallery, London, itinerant exhibiton

1992

Quotations, The Second History of Art; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, at Wright State University

The Order of Things; Toward a Politic of Still Life, Widner Gallery, Trinity College and Real Art Ways, Connecticut

The Seventies, John Gibson Gallery, New York City

1991

New York Diary; Almost 25 Different Things, P.S.1 Museum, The Institute for Contemporary Art, New York City.

American Express, John Gibson Gallery, New York City.

Insect Politics, Body Horror/Social Order, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY

1990

Rock, Is There Something You're Not Telling Me?, Selections from the Contemporary Sculpture Collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Kohler Gallery, Toronto

Voyages of the Modern Imagination: The Boat in Contemporary Art, Farnsworth Museum, Maine

Contemporary Visions, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

1989

L'observatoire, Gallery Farideh Cadot, New York City and Paris

Sequence (con) Sequence, (Sub)versions of Photography in the 80's, Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Bard College, New York

1988

West Art and the Law, exposition itinérante à Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Canada; Temple University Law School; Anderson Gallery, Virginia University, Richmond; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis Universit

Fabricated Image, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University

1987

A Look at Photography Book of 1987, International Center for Photography, New York City

Photography and Art, Interactions Since 1946 to 1987, County Museum and Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Los Angeles

This is Not a Photograph, 20 Years of Large Scale Photography 1966 to 1986, John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Floride. Itinérance à Akron Art Museum et the Chrysler Museum

Photo Mannerism, Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia

Alternative Image III, Visual Paradox, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

1986

Cinema Object, City Gallery, Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City.

Apparitions and Allusions; Photographs of the Unseen, San Diego State University.

Intimate-Intimate, Indiana State University.

Artists Select Artists, C.D.S. Gallery, New York City.

The Real Big Picture Show, Queens Museum, New York City.

Human Interest - Fifty Years of British Art About People, Cornerhouse, Manchester, Grande-Bretagne.

1985

A Journey Through Contemporary Art, Hayward Gallery, London

Body and Soul, Recent Aspects of Figurative Sculpture, itinerant exhibition: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

Psychodrama, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia.

Conscious Objectors, Ted Greenwald Gallery, New York City

1984

El Arte Narrativo, Museo Rufino, Tamayo, Mexico City

New Jersey Arts Inclusion Program, 1978-1984, The Jane Voorhees Simmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University

lers Ateliers Internationaux De Fontevraud, Fontevraud, FR

International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Content, The Contemporary Focus, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D

Aspects of New Narrative Art, Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts, exposition itinérante: Rhode Island School of Design Museum / Skidmore College Museum

1983

Studio G7 Ginevra Grigolo, 1973/1983, Bologna

In Plato's Cave, Marlborough Gallery, New York City

Bronze!, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, U

Fragments, Tangeman Gallery, University of Cincinnati

The New Sculpture,Hamilton Gallery, New York City

Photo as Art, works from the Krauss Collection, Neue National Galerie, Berlin

Kölnicher Kunstverein 1983, Münchner Stadtmuseum

Kunsthalle zu Kiel der Christian Ailbrechts-Universitatund

Schleswig-Holsteinisher Kunstverein, itinerant exhibition

1982

Tableaux, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

Still Modern After All These Years, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA

20th Year Rutgers University M.F.A. Program, NJew Jersey Museum, Trenton

Beyond Photography: The Fabricated Image, Delahunty Gallery, New York City

Spiegel-Bilder, exposition itinérante: Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg Kunstverein Hanover, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin

Sidney Biennale, Gallery New S. Wales, Sidney.

1981

5th Vienna International Biennale, Erweiterte Fotografie, Vienna

British Artists in Berlin, Two Decades of D.A.A.D. Artists in Residence Program, Goethe Institute, London

Five English Artists, John Gibson Gallery, New York City

Alternatives in Retrospect, an historical overview 1969-1975, New Museum, New York City

New Directions, Contemporary American Art from the Commodities Corporation Collection, exposition itinérante, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York City.

1980

Painting and Sculpture Today, 1980, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis.

New Work, John Hilliard, Jeff Wall, Dan Graham, Roger Cutforth, Mac Adams, Hal Bromm Gallery.

1979

Narrative Art, Groninger Museum, Pays-Bas.

Concept/Narrative/Document, Recent Photographic Works from the Morton Neumann Family Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

The Altered Photograph, Exhibition Center, Institute for Art & Urban Resources, P.S. 1, New York City.

1978

Personal Visions: Places, Spaces, Bronx Museum, New York City

Narrative Art, I.C.A., Boston

1977

Twelve From Rutgers 1977, University Art Gallery, N.Brunswick, New Jersey

American Narrative/Story Art 1967-77, Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas, itinerant exhibition

Adams/Beckley/Collins, Alberta College of Art, Alberta

Documenta 6, Kassel

On Site, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK

New Ideas, A Collection of Works for Jimmy Carter, Museum of Georgia, Athens

1976

Photo-Idea, Gallery Communale d Arte Moderna, Parma

The Artist and the Photograph, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

1969

Soft Art, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton

1967

Contemporary Painting/Sculpture in Wales, National Museum, Wales

Bibliography

Bibliography

Books and catalogues (selection)

2010

Monograph, Mac Adams - The Narrative Void, various authors, Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon sur Saône; MUDAM, Luxembourg, Editions Le Bec en l’air, Manosque, 2010

2006

Monograph, Mac Adams: Mens Rea, Editions de l'Oeil, Paris, 2006

2004

Monograph, Mac Adams, Beyond a Shadow of Doubt, by Nancy Princenthal, Editions Joca Seria, Musées de Châteauroux, 2004

2003

Art and Photography, edited by David Campany Phaidon Publication, 2003(pp. 94/95)

2002

Images au centre 02, Photographie contemporaine et Patrimoine, by Sylvain Lizon, Editions du Patrimoine, 2002

Monograph, Crimes of Perception, by Yannick Vigouroux and Judicaël Lavrador, Editions du Regard, Paris, 2002

One Hundred Lies, by Patrick Bouvet, Editions Christophe Daviet-Thery, Paris, 2002.

2000

Exhibition Catalogue, Mac Adams, Silence of Shadows, by Norbert Lynton, Cardiff Bay Arts Trust, 2000.

1999

EXTRAetORDINAIRE, by Pascal Beausse, Actes Sud, 1999

1998

Chemical Traces, Photography and Conceptual Art, 1968-1998, Frens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hill, U.K, 1998

Fine Art Photography, Graphis Publications

1997

20th Century Photography, Museum Ludwig Köln, Germany, 1997

The Bhudda Book, Frank Olinsky, Chronical Publications, 1997

1996

Mac Adams, Meditation, Editions CEAAC Strasbourg, 1996

Question of Genres, by Jean-Marc Huitorel, Reims, France, 1996

1995

L'Impunité de l'art, by Jacques Soulillou, Editions Du Seuil, Paris, 1995

Mac Adams, by Jacques Soulillou, in 'Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain, Limousin, 1989-1995'

Intimacy, by Tomak Lemprecht, National Arts Club, New York City

Quotations, The Second History of Art, The Aidrich Museum of Contemporary Art and Museum of Contemporary Art at Wright State University

1992

The Order of Things; Toward a Politic of Still Life, by Susan M. Canning, Widner Gallery Trinity College and Real Art Ways, Hartford

1991

The Surrogate Figure; Intercepted Identities in Contemporary Photography, texte de Julia Ballerini, Center for Photography, Woodstock, New York

Water as Environmental Art, Shoichiro Higuchi (pp. 148), Kashiwashobo Publishing Company, Tokyo

Public Art, Urban Sculpture of 50 Cities in USA, Shoichiro Higuchi

1990

Insect Politics. Body Horror/Social Order, by Stephen Derrickson, Hallwalls Publications

Idea, International Advertising Art Series 16: Art in New York Today?, by Shoichiro Higuchi

1989

Mac Adams, Fountainhead, by Lynda Forsha, Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California

Mac Adams, Serpent Bearer, by Donald Wall, Montclair State College Publication

Sequence (con) Sequence, (Sub)versions of Photography in the 80's, edited by Julia Ballerini, Aperture Book

L'observatoire, Farideh Cadot Gallery

Balkon Mit Facher, 25 Jahre Berliner Kunstlerprogram Des D.A.A.D, (p. 120)

Visual Paradox, Truth and Fiction in the Photographic Image, by Joanne Cubbs, John Michael Kohler Arts Centre, Sheboygan, Wisconsi (pp. 9/43)

1998

West Art and the Law, by Saul Touster, (pp. 3/4, 14/15)

1987

Art and Photography, interactions Since 1945, texts by Andy Grundberg and Kathleen McCarthy Guass, Abbeville Press, NY (pp. 140/156)

Fabrications, text by Anne Hoy, Abbeville Press, NY Publications

This is Not a Photograph, Twenty Years of Large Scale Photography 1966 to 1986, texts by Joe Jacobs, John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, Florida

Privileged Eye, text by Max Kosloff, University of New Mexico Press

1986

Intimate/Intimate, Charles Mayer, Univ. of Indiana,

1985

Human Interest. Fifty Years of British Art About People, edited by Norbert Lynton

Body and Soul, Aspects of Recent Figurative sculpture, Sarah Rogers-Lafferty

A Journey Through Contemporary Art with Nigel Greenwood, Haywood Gallery, Arts Council of Great Britain, London,

Drawing a Contemporary Approach, Claudia Betti / Teel Sale, Hold / Rinehart / Winston, publication

El Arte Narrativo, text by Bruce D. Kurtz, Museo RufinoTamayo, Mexico City & P.S. 1, Long Island City, NY84

New Jersey Arts Inclusion Program 1978-1984

1ers Ateliers Internationaux De Fontevraud, text by Michel Enrici

Content, A Contemporary Focus 1974-1984, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, text by Kynaston McShine, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Aspects of New Narrative Art, Debra Brickner Balke, Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts

Mac Adams, text by Bernard Martin, Galerie Arlogos, Nantes, France

In Plato's Cave, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Marlborough Gallery, New York

Works from the Krauss Collection, Neue National Galerie, Berlin.

Esthétique & Réthorique, Mac Adams, New Mysteries, Furor Magazine #8

New Trends, The Gallery of World Photography, texts by Weston Naef, Shueisha Publishing Company

Still Modern After All These Years, textes de Brooks Johnson /Thomas W. Styron, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA

Tableaux, Nine Contemporary Sculptors, texts by Michael Klein /Robert Stearns, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati

Mac Adams Mysteries, text by Bernard Blistène, Musée de Toulon, France

Mystery and Meaning in the Work of Mac Adams, text by Kate Linker, Neue Galerie-Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, DE

1981

New Direction, Contemporary American Art, Introduction by Sam Hunter

Photo/Documents, Photo/Narratives and Photographs, Robert C. Morgan

British Artists in Berlin, Two Decades of the D.A.A.D, ZG. Magazine, Artist and Camera

Mac Adams Mysteries, text by Kim Levin, Welsh Arts Council

1970's

Model of History, Skira Annuel, 1979

Class and Classlessness in American Art, Carter Ratcliff, 1979

Photographie als Medium, text by R.H. Krauss, V.A.N. publication, Germany, 1979

Narrative Art, texte de Antje Von Graeventz, Groninger Museum, Pays-Bas, 1979

Concept/Narrative/Document, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1979

American Narrative/Story Art, 1967-1977, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, 1978

Adams/ Beckley/ Collins, texte de Eric Cameron, Alberta College of Art, Octobre 1977

Documenta 6, Photography/Film/Video, 1977

Eight Small Sculptures, book published by the artist

Press (selection)

2007

Les Inrockuptibles, Mac Adams, Judicaël Lavrador, May 8-14

Connaissance des Arts, Les cadavres exquis de Mac Adams, March - May

2006

Next Level, The Desire Issue, Mac Adams Witness

2002

Zurban, Les Clés du Cluedo, Mac Adams, November

Libération, Objectif Centre, October

Aden / Le Monde, Mac Adams, Emmanuelle Lequeux, December

2001

Beaux Arts Magazine, Mac Adams Images Polar, Véronique Bouruet-Aubertot, November

Le Journal du CNP, Remix en série, Judicaël Lavrador, September

Le Monde, Mystérieux Mac Adams, Michel Guerrin, November 3,

Vogue, Mac Adams, October

L'oeil, Mac Adams, faits divers, November

Paris Photo, Mac Adams, November-December 2

1999

Beaux-Arts Magazine, L'Affaire Beaux- Arts !, Jean-Max Colard et Nicolas Demorand, June

1997

Mac Adams and Michael Snow, Dominique Nahas, Review, June 15

1994

Art Press, Mac Adams Relating the Facts, Jacques Soulillou, April p 61-66,

1993

Sunday Star, Mac Adams Images Provoke Viewers Imagination, Ledger Mitchell Seidel June 6

New York Times, Mysteries of One Kind or Another, Vivian Raynor, August 15

The New Yorker, Slight Modifications, Lawrence Weschler, July 12

1992

New York Times, Reviews, Charles Hagen, March

New York Times, Politics of Blame on Display in Hartford, Vivian Raynor, Feb 16,

Hartford Advocate, Distant Voices, Still Lives, Susan Wadsworth, Feb 26

New York Times, Photography and the Sin of Voyeurism, Vicki Goldberg, March 8

1991

The Korean Times-New York, The Korean War Veterans Parade, Charles Kim, June 29

New York Times Metropolitan, A Korean War Parade, Decades Late, James Barron, June 26

The Stare Ledger, Korea Salute, Vets of Forgotten War hailed a parade, Kevin R. Richardson, June 26

New York Times, An Obelisk for Korean Veterans, Paul Helou, April 7

1990

New York Times, Photography: Images of the Past and Future, Andy Greenburg, January 12,

New York Observer, Juxtaposed Images Create Mystery Fictions, A.D. Colman, January

Art News, Mac Adams, Gracie Mansion at Farideh Cadot, R.B. Woodward, May

Village Voice, Photo, V. Ahtti, January 30

Art International, Summer, pp. 71-72

Robert Esformes, It Came Out of Nowhere, Inquiry Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, Montclair State College, VoI. 5, No. 4, May

1989

New York Times, New York Salutes Its Korean War Memorial, Michael Freitag, Friday, September 29

Art & Auction, Adams' Apple, Lin Smith Vincent, November

Battery News Remembering Korea in Battery Park, by Meg Siesfeld, October 23

New York Vets, Mayor Unveils Design for Korean Veterans Memorial, Fall, VoI. 1, No. 4

New York Post, Statue to Korean War Dead, September 29,

San Diego Union, Artist Images Require Reflection, Robert L. Pincus, January 15

Artweek, Judith Christensen, January 17, VoI. 20

1998

Los Angeles Times, San Diego Edition, Something Else is Going on in These Sculptures, Hilliard Harper, December 14

San Diego Tribune, Mac Adams: Sculptural Surprises, Susan Freudenheim, December 28

Los Angeles Times, Cathy Curtis, May 27

Los Angeles Weekly, Amelia Jones, June 3-9.

1987

Flash Art, Lucie Beyer, November/December, p. 12

Flash Art, Photomannerisms, Klaus Ohmann, October/November. p. 71

Village Voice, Kim Levin, May 29

New York Times, Michael Brenson, May 29

Art in America, Malice Aforethought, Paul Stimpson. pp. 114/117, January

1986

Village Voice, Death of Photography, Gary Indiana, September 30

Artforum, Through the Narrative Portal, Max Kosloff, April

The Real Big Picture Show, Queens Museum, New York, Marvin Heifferman

1985

New York Times, Reviews, Vivian Raynor, October 4

The Toronto Star, Sculptures Play Mind Games, Christopher Hume, May 17

1984

Artforum, Patricia C. Philips, Review, p. 98, November

New York Times, Reviews, Michael Brenson, c. 27, August 14

Flash Art, Review, Philippe Piguet, October

Artforum, Review, Jean Fisher, February

Artforum, Review, Charles Hagen, February

1983

Village Voice, Top Forms, Kim Levin, May 24

The Globe and Mail, Four Who Refuse to Follow the Herd, John Bentley Mays, Toronto, June 4

Art News, Missing Persons, William Olander, February

1982

Zein Magazine, Staged Photo Events-The Frontiers of Meaning, Mariette Haveman, Fall

Dialogue Magazine, Assembling Tableaux, J.Z. Kamholtz, November

Dialogue Magazine, Tableaux, Amy Banister, September

Arts Magazine, Mystery and Meaning in the Work of Mac Adams, Kate Linker, February

The Print Collector's Newsletter, Narrative, Carter Ratcliff, No. 6, January-February

1981

Vanguard Magazine, Patrick McGrath

1979-1980

Aspects #9, Winter 1979-80.

Impulse, Mac Adams Mysteries, Spring 1980.

Arts Magazine, Mac Adams, R. Yoskowitz, February 1980.

Studio 46 publication, La Gabbia sui Pirenei, Torino, Piergiorgio Firinu, 1979.

The New York Times, Grace Glueck, Friday, December 7, 1979.

Kunstforum, G. Nabakowski, #32, February 1979.

Art Monthly, #30, Ian Walker, 1979.

Intermedia, La Folgorante Rifrazione del Thrilling, Raffaele Milani, School of Art & Art History, University of Iowa, 1979.

Studio G7 Publication, Mac Adams e iI Cinema Poliziesco Americano, Bologna, 1979.

Kunstmagazine, Profil II, May 1979.

Studio G7, Mac Adams' Sala Polivalente / Ferrara, Mariuccia Casadio.

Flash Art, January/February 1979.

4 Taxis, Folie Noire, pp. 40-41, No. 3/4, March 1979.

L'Espresso, Su Quel Muro C'e inn Romanzo, Renato Barilli, December 13, 1979.

1978

Art International, New York Letter, Carter Ratcliff. VoI 11/3

Studio G7, Detective Investigation and Involvement in the work of Mac Adams, Francesca Alinovi

Arts Magazine, Mac Adams, Jonathan Craryp, June

Artscribe No. 11, Mac Adams, Jonathan Bayer

Artforum, Jeffrey Keeffe, Review, May

Art News, New York Reviews, Madeleine Burnside, May

Arts Magazine, Mac Adams, Circumstantial Evidence, Kim Levin, April

Arts Magazine, Review, Valentin Tatransky, April

Soho Weekly News, Jean Perreault, March 2-8,

1977

Flash Art, Post Conceptual Romanticism, December

Skira Annuel, L'Art pour qui?, p. 79,

Flash Art, Documenta issue, Summer

The Daily Iowan, Adams Art Surreal, Romantic, Judith Rew, Iowa City

Dusseldorfer Feuilleton, March 17

Handelsblalt Kur, Aus Den Galerien, March 8

N.R.Z, Jeder Fuhlt sich wie ein kleiner Maigret, Von Goswin Bach, March 2

1976

Artforum, Mac Adams, The Mysteries, Eric Cameron, October

Domus, No. 559, June/July

Flash Art, Photography, A Specific Communication for Artistic Research, Ilaria Bignamini, May/June 1976.

Studio International, NY Reviews,Margaret Sheffield, May/June

File Magazine, New York, Issue

NY Magazine, Windows: Whodunit First, Dorothy Seiberling, May 24

Arts Magazine, Reviews, Nancy Grove, April

Art News, Reviews, Peter Frank, April

Soho Weekly News, April Kingsley, March 4

Interview Magazine, Ronnie Cutrone, March

1975

Flash Art, June/July,

Artforum, Reviews, Robert Pincus-Witten, February

1974

Artforum, Reviews, James Collins, January

1972

Art News, Reviews, Jane Gollin, Summer

1969

Art News, Sweet Mystery of Life, Amy Goldin, May

Downloadable press articles

Click on the underlined parts to download the texts in pdf

Les Inrockuptibles #597, Mac Adams, review by Judicaël Lavrador, May 8 - 14, 2007.

Catalogue extract, Mac Adams, Crimes of Perception, Cluedo Photo, text by by Judicaël Lavrador,Editions du Regard, Paris, 2002

Catalogue extract, ExtraetOrdinaire, Printemps de Cahors, Mac Adams, text by Pascal Beausse, Editions Actes Sud, 1999.-

Artpress #190, Mac Adams, relating the facts, by Jacques Soulillou, March, 1994

Mysteries, Welsh Arts Coucil, 1979

Mysteries, Musée de Toulon, 11 mars - 25 avril 1982

Catalogue extract Mac Adams or narrative photography, Alexandre Quoi in Mac Adams - The Narrative Void, various authors, Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon sur Saône; MUDAM, Luxembourg, Editions Le Bec en l’air, Manosque, 2010

Photographs

Forensic Fairy Tale (Little Red Riding Hood)

Forensic Fairy Tale (Goldilocks)

Thinking of Nabokov III

Thinking of Nabokov II

Thinking of Nabokov I

Wrong man

The Third Swan

The Pond

Forensic Still Life

College widow

Doubt

Half Truths

Islands

Parallel Lives

Empty Spaces

Postmodern Tragedies

Mysteries

Installations

Loose Threads I

Loose Threads II

Looking Through Blue

The Bathroom

The Passenger

Searching for Lola Ramona

Claire's Room

The Glass Chandelier

Black Mail

Drawings

The Witness

The Passenger

Study for Staircase

Study II The Swimming Pool

Study for the Pool

Study for Fragments The Wall

Study for Still Life with Mozart Konzert

Untitled Record

Study for Looking through Blue

The Interrogation

The Kiss

Fire and Water V

Publications

The narrative void

"The narrative void has its origins in the cinema; it describes the space between the sequential moving images. 24 frames a second is the speed the human mind can recognize plausible literal spacetime in the construction of conventional narratives. What interests me is what happens in the space between these images and the space between forms generally and the multiple narratives they evoke especially in the very specific context of the mystery."

Mac Adams

Mens rea

Beyond the shadow of doubt

Crimes of perception