Emzy, 1990 31 in. x 21 in. x 12 in. (787.4 mm x 533.4 mm x 304.8 mm) The Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection, 1991. 91.40
Hank Murta Adams
Hank Adams' work bridges the vast gap between tradition and innovation. His busts recall centuries-old traditions expressed in marble, bronze and wood. Rather than portraits of mythic gods, heroes, nobility or politicians, Adams models a more generic image, intended to serve as a generalized reference to mankind. His busts have a spiritual kinship to the French artist Jean Dubuffet, whose figures are raw, spontaneous and direct.
Surprisingly, the often fragile nature of glass is transformed in his treatment to a material of great mass and durability like the busts of his historical predecessors. Whereas traditional materials tend to absorb light, Adams' sculpture captures light and enables it to act as an internal resonator, enlivening the surface from within. In addition to a heavily faceted and pitted surface, Adams energizes his forms with embedded debris. These veiled references to a modern industrial world charge the work with political and cultural overtones, endowing a certain dysfunction to his character.
Adams was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1956. He received a B.F.A. degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978 and studied at the Penland School in North Carolina as well as at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington. He currently lives in Albany, New York.
  
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