Adam Pendleton for Gabriela Hearst

Published by Sharon Coplan • To Benefit the Nina Simone Childhood Home • Exclusively at The Salon at Sotheby's New York • April 3 - 26 • Available for purchase via TheSalon.NewYork@sothebys.com

Adam Pendleton, a central figure in contemporary American art, is known for paintings that have redefined the boundaries of abstraction. Upending linear compositional logic, Pendleton’s paintings are created through a distilled layering of gesture, fragment, and form. Each painting comes to life through expressionistic flourishes, stark contrasts, and subtle uses of material, tone, and finish, combined with a precision reminiscent of minimal and conceptual art. In 2008, he began to define his working method as Black Dada, a critical framework for exploring the relationship between Blackness, abstraction, and the historical avant-gardes—for which he is now widely recognized.

Pendleton’s painting process begins on paper, where he explores the full breadth of mark-making. He layers paint, spray paint, ink, and watercolor, integrating fragmentary text and geometric forms, often using stenciling techniques. These works on paper are photographed and then combined through a screen-printing process. Blurring distinctions between painting, drawing, and photography, the resulting paintings are a tangible manifestation of his belief in painting as a powerful “visual and conceptual force.”

Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen continues at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, through 2027. In 2026, Pendleton will present solo exhibitions at the Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

In 2024, Pendleton was honored with the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Recent solo and group exhibitions include Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2025–2027); Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2024–2025); Adam Pendleton: Blackness, White, and Light, mumok—Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2023–2024); Adam Pendleton: To Divide By, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (2023–2024); Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2022); Adam Pendleton: These Things We’ve Done Together, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2022); and Adam Pendleton: Who Is Queen?, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2021–2022).

Pendleton’s work is held in numerous public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Tate, London; and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.

Gabriela Hearst grew up on her family’s ranch in Uruguay, where the notion of luxury meant things were beautifully crafted and made to last which inspired the launch of her eponymous label in Fall 2015. She wanted a brand that reflected purpose in every piece—luxury collections with a conscience, or “honest luxury”. Gabriela Hearst’s runway shows have been a pioneering example of sustainability, using deadstock fabrics, and eliminating plastic use. Her Spring Summer 2020 collection marked the first ever carbon neutral runway show.

She was the winner of the 2016/17 International Woolmark Prize for Womenswear, 2018 recipient of the Pratt Institute Fashion Visionary Award, the 2020 CFDA American Womenswear Designer of the Year, 2021 recipient of the Frank Alvah Parsons Award, 2022 recipient of the Infinity Trustees Award by the International Center of Photography, and was selected as one of the five Honorees in the Environment category among the fifteen Leaders of Change at the British Fashion Council’s 2020, 2021 and 2022 Fashion Awards.

In December 2020, she was named Creative Director at Chloé. In 2021, she was named one of the 25 Most Influential Women of 2021 by the Financial Times. In 2023, she was honored with the 2023 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion by The Couture Council of The Museum at FIT (MFIT). In March 2024, TIME announced Gabriela Hearst as one of the honorees of the 2024 TIME Earth Awards, which recognizes individuals influencing the future of the planet through their work on climate justice, awareness, and activism. Most recently, she was included in the inaugural list of National Geographic 33 which honors 33 changemakers whose ideas, influence and drive are shaping a better future for our planet.

An independent curator, publisher, and leading expert in the field of contemporary prints and multiples, she has produced a number of special editions for nonprofit institutions, including The Met 150: a portfolio of prints to benefit The Metropolitan Museum of Art on its 150th anniversary; and I Feel Real When You Hold Me by Jeffrey Gibson, a blanket edition created to support the U.S. Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, commissioned by the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, and SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico; and a commission with Mickalene Thomas: L ’espace être les deux, 2025 for the IFPDA at the Park Avenue Armory, New York. She is the author of John Baldessari: A Catalogue Raisonné of Prints and Multiples, and co-author of OPEN STUDIO: DIY Art Projects by Contemporary Artists.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (Action Fund), a division of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announced the completed restoration of legendary musical artist Nina Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, NC in 2025. While not yet open to the public, the home will serve as a historic place to inspire visitors and artists, authentically showcasing where Simone grew up and grew into her artistic voice.

Originally built in the early 1900s, the 650-square foot, three-room clapboard house where Simone was born and lived from 1933-1937 had fallen into disrepair and was threatened by demolition until it was purchased in 2016 by Daydream Therapy, LLC—a collective of the artists Adam Pendleton, Ellen Gallagher, Julie Mehretu, and Rashid Johnson.

Today, the Action Fund and Daydream Therapy LLC are closely engaged with the Tryon community on the next phase of this project, determining a strategy for creative programming, ethical interpretation, and eventual cultural heritage tourism at the site. Until further announcements are made, the Action Fund encourages would-be visitors to engage with news about the home via their website.

For more information, please visit https://savingplaces.org/ninasimone