6/4/12

URI Library


Adrienne Adeyemi's work has been replaced mid-season for a special URI Gallery exhibition:

IMAGINING PEACE - Artworks by Mimi Sammis and CPT Nicholas Mercurio

July 9 2012 – August 25 with Gallery Receptions July 19th & August 16th 5-9pm

Six-foot panels, each uniquely designed by an artist or group of artists, comprise one large display memorializing Afghan civilian casualties. The exhibit also includes images collected from Afghan high school students by Dr. Zahir Wahab, a professor at Lewis and Clark College who asked young Afghans to draw images from their daily reality.



Adrienne Adeyemi


Stand Still, Close Your Eyes, 2010

A series of B&W Silver Gelatin photographs



About the Work

My fascination in making portraits comes from a desire to connect with people, both strange and familiar, and to make meaning of these various relationships.


Throughout my various projects, I have always been attracted to the voyeuristic nature of how I observe and capture people in their most peaceful and vulnerable states. I am also interested in photographing the awkward and uneasy space that exists between myself as the photographer and the people I have daily interactions with.


In this series, Stand Still, Close You’re Eyes, I objectively treated each subject in the same way, photographing them in a figurative manner and displaying them in a standardized repetitive way, freeing myself up to examine and make meaning of each individual relationship more closely.


In playing with the viewer’s gaze, my work also aims to challenge the viewer’s preconceived assumptions of what traditional portraiture is. My subjects’ eyes are closed, thereby denying the viewer the one thing that they expect to see in a portrait. The viewer must look for new ways to access these images. This series explores new realms of what portrait photography can be.


About the Artist


Adrienne Adeyemi (b. 1988) is an emerging, photo-based artist. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where she currently continues to live and work. She received her BA with highest honors in Photography and Screen Studies, from Clark University in 2010. Her work has been exhibited in a solo show at the Dana Commons Gallery in Worcester, MA and in several group exhibitions throughout the North East, including the AS220 Gallery in Providence, RI, the Aurora Gallery in Worcester, MA, and the UN Plaza in New York City.


To viw more of her work, please go to adrienneadeyemi.com.

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