New exhibition pays homage to late artist and professor with 10 artists from the University of Pennsylvania Community who were deeply impacted by his work and their relationship with him.

The Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to present Darkwater Revival: After Terry Adkins, an homage to the distinguished artist, musician, and University of Pennsylvania professor whose untimely death in 2014 was a huge loss to the artistic community. 

The exhibition, which opens on Saturday, August 27th and runs through December 11th, 2016, explores Adkins legacy not only as an artist, but as a professor, colleague and mentor, and is highlighted by the works of 10 artists and former students from the Penn Community who have been deeply impacted by Terry’s work and by their relationship with him. 

Darkwater Revival will feature many of Adkins original works from Darkwater: A Recital in Four Dominions, Terry Adkins after W.E.B. Du Bois, his homage to Du Bois, 100 years after the publication of the Philadelphia Negro (published by University of Penn in 1899). The exhibition was a site-specific collaboration with the Arthur Ross Gallery, and combined sculptural elements with archival documents, artifacts, and prints and performance to create a recital in which Adkins was composer, conductor, and performer. Darkwater Revival follows in Adkins’ footsteps, honoring the artist in much the same way, reflecting on Terry’s creative process, his intuitive and thoughtful approach to art-making, all highlighted by the recent works of his former students and collaborators Jamal Cyrus, Nsenga Knight, Ernel Martinez, Matt Neff, Tameka Norris, Sean Riley, Jessica Slaven, Ivanco Talevski, Sarah Tortora and Wilmer Wilson.

Darkwater Revival: After Terry Adkins is curated by Dejáy B. Duckett, Associate Director and Associate Curator of Penn’s Arthur Ross Gallery who curated Darkwater Revival with Adkins in 2002 and Demetrius Oliver, the New York-based artist 2004 graduate of Penn’s School of Design who studied under Adkins.

Terry Adkins joined the Penn faculty in 2000, and was known for using biographical information of often-overlooked historical figures in addition to the music and found materials that inspired his work. His art is in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and the Tate Modern in London. He was featured in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, and also the 2015 Venice Biennale. 

Adds Demetrious Oliver: “His work, steeped in abstraction, left an indelible impression on me, it was his uncompromising principles and artistic stance that continues to challenge me today.”

During Darkwater Revival three artists will present performances in the Arthur Ross Gallery:

Thursday, September 8, 2016

5:30 – 8:00 PM (opening reception)

Performance conceived by Terry Adkins, performed by
Matthew Clayton, Harmonic Spheres

Thursday, September 29, 2016

 5:30 PM

Sean Riley, Insoluble

Friday, December 2, 2016

5:30 PM

Ernel Martinez and Keir Johnston, Martyrs’ Day

Landscape / Soundscape

January 14 – March 26, 2017

The Arthur Ross Gallery is located at 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia (located in the Fisher Fine Arts Library Building), and is free and open to the public.

HOURS: Weekdays 10:00am – 5:00pm; Weekends 12:00pm – 5:00pm. Closed Mondays. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter.  To reserve a group tour please contact us at sabrady@upenn.edu or 215-898-3617. 

Additional information is available at ArthurRossGallery.org or 215-898-2083.