On Saturday, February 21st, downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) will proudly unveil a new solo show from figurative painter Adrian Cox, titled The Well of Dreams, in the Main Gallery.
"Wandering Fires" (oil on panel, 36 in diameter)
The studio practice for the Los Angeles-based artist and compelling storyteller involves crafting an intricate and epic mythology with his paintings, in which he explores questions of identity, spirituality, and our relationship with the natural world. In creating his work, Cox draws inspiration from art history, science fiction, mythic archetypes, and his own experience of growing up in a closeted queer family. Featuring over twenty new works, The Well of Dreams marks Cox’s fifth solo exhibition at CHG, following The Brush and the Torch (June 2023), Dream Country (Sept. 2021), Into the Spirit Garden (Mar. 2020), and Terra Incognita (Feb. 2018). Leading up to the show’s opening, Cox is sharing in-studio videos, providing a sneak peek into some of his new works (watch here, here, and here).
“The Well of Dreams (Maker's Dream XV)” (oil on panel, 36” diameter)
“The Flooded Path (Maker's Dream XI)” (oil on panel, 24” diameter)
Regarding his work, Cox says, “My paintings are connected by a mythic narrative set in a world that I call the Borderlands. For over a decade, I've cultivated this internal landscape and used my paintings to give it form. Each image that I create is an exploratory step leading deeper into a territory that exists at the threshold of the real and the imagined, the physical world and the world of dreams. The protagonists of the mythology that I've created are beings known as Border Creatures. These creatures are, both physically and spiritually, an extension of the landscape that they inhabit. Their anatomy combines human traits with those of the Borderlands, and they serve as caretakers of their wilderness home. These strange but peaceful creatures are artists, gardeners, poets, scientists, and mystics. When they dream, the landscape dreams with them. The Border Creatures are antagonized by the Specters, blue spirits of pure energy. These spirits casually burn the landscape that they walk upon and are alienated from the world that they inhabit. The Specters perceive that which is other as a threat, or as a resource reducible to its usefulness. The war between the Border Creatures and Specters is a conflict between two distinct ways of being in the world.”
"The Fall (Maker's Dream VII)" (oil on panel, 12 in diameter)
Regarding his upcoming show, the artist shares: “This exhibition tells the story of Maker, a sculptor whose hand was pierced by a Specter's arrow while opening a portal into the void. This injury, known as the Cosmic Wound, poisoned Maker and blackened their hand. When Maker was unable to heal themself by conventional means, the other Border Creatures devised a ritual to guide their wounded friend through the Labyrinth of Unknowing and into the dreamworld. In The Well of Dreams, Maker's inward pilgrimage becomes a mystical quest to find a cure for the Cosmic Wound. Their journey takes them through spiritual wastelands and haunted forests of the mind, until at last they find what they seek: the heart of dreams from which all creativity flows. This sacred source of the imagination gives Maker the strength not to heal the Cosmic Wound, but to transfigure it into something powerful and life-affirming.
"Duet (Maker's Dream IX)" (oil on panel, 12 in diameter)
As I've worked on this exhibition, Maker's dream quest has increasingly mirrored my own surrealist ventures into the depths. The paintings in this show incorporate symbolic language drawn forth from the subconscious, and as such, my process has become increasingly experimental. For many of these works, I constructed narratives using a variation of the cut-up technique, in which I pulled scraps of sentences randomly from a bag and then arranged them into a story. The text fragments that I used for this process were sourced from numerous books that included several versions of the Arthurian Holy Grail quest as well as my own dream journals. I created other paintings from imagery that I discovered during active imagination sessions, a meditative daydreaming technique. In these sessions, I sat before an altar adorned with symbols from my work while listening to soundscapes that I created to evoke the Borderlands. These experimental approaches to my process have allowed me to treat imaginative play as an act of sacred magic. With this exhibition, I've sought to treat creative invention as a spiritually vital way of interacting with the world, of giving it meaning and soul.
"The Wasteland (Maker's Dream VIII)" (oil on panel, 24 in diameter)
The Well of Dreams is an exploration of the nature and source of creativity. The story that unfolds in this exhibition suggests the importance of cultivating internal imaginal landscapes and depicts spiritual development as an engagement with the world rather than a departure from it. Ultimately, however, I created these paintings to be symbols for something beyond the reach of discursive thought. The Borderlands exist outside of me and my intentions as an artist, so I invite you to find personal meaning in this mythic world.”
“A Path Between Heaven and Earth III” (oil on panel, 36” x 24”)
“Painter's Study” (oil on panel, 12” x 18”)
In the June ’23 issue of American Art Collector, Michael Pearce writes, “Painter Adrian Cox takes you on a visual journey into a fully-developed mythical realm between the real and imagined…He is keenly aware of the difference between experiencing a painting and understanding it, and perfectly happy for viewers to create their own narratives based on their interpretation of them. The paintings are doorways to the viewer’s creativity…Cox is on a wonderfully weird journey into the realms of his imagination and we are welcomed to it.”
“A Path Between Heaven and Earth IV” (oil on panel, 18” x 24”)
Open to the public and free to attend, The Well of Dreams is set to debut on Saturday, February 21st from 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm in the Main Gallery, alongside a solo show from Irish oil painter Chloe Early, titled Futures, in Gallery 2 and a two-artist show featuring solos from visual artist Clémentine Bal, titled I Can See You, and multidisciplinary artist Matthew Dutton, titled Domestic Tranquility, in Gallery 3. The shows will be on view at CHG through March 28th.
About Adrian Cox:
Adrian Cox (born 1988) is a painter living and working in Los Angeles, California. Cox’s studio practice involves crafting an intricate and epic mythology with his paintings, in which he explores questions of identity, spirituality, and our relationship with the natural world. In creating his work, Cox draws inspiration from art history, science fiction, mythic archetypes, and his own experience of growing up in a closeted queer family. Cox attended the University of Georgia for his undergraduate studies and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors in 2010. He obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree from Washington University in Saint Louis in 2012. Cox has exhibited his work nationally and abroad, including at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, MO and the Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, CA. Plus, his paintings have been featured by VICE, Juxtapoz, Beautiful Bizarre, Hi-Fructose, American Art Collector, Heavy Metal Magazine (cover of issue #292), Hey! Art Mag, and in the book Anatomy Rocks: Flesh and Bones in Contemporary Art.
Cox’s 2020 solo show at Corey Helford Gallery, Into the Spirit Garden, garnered the attention of internationally acclaimed rock band TOOL, who used Cox’s piece "The Birth of Spirit Gardener” from the exhibit for a limited-edition concert poster. Plus, LA Weekly profiled the artist with a cover feature (3/18/20) to preview the show at CHG, sharing: “…the incredible collection of Cox’s new work [Into the Spirit Garden] vibrates around a mythical journey his characters take through power, redemption and, finally, community…Setting up a world with infinite ways to explore humans and their relationships to themselves and society, Cox paints stunning scenes in oil of glowing beings that lack genuine dimensionality as they plot against ethereal creatures, and ultimately themselves…Intriguing and subversive, the narrative peaks with the ascent of the spirit gardener, a dazzling pink and yellow human figure formed of crystals, flowers and a rainbow glow. This is who we all are — seen as consciously, fully realized in Cox’s art…this exhibit sparks conversation, humor and introspection.”
Find him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/adriancoxart
About Corey Helford Gallery:
Established in 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer/creator Bruce Helford (The Conners, Lopez vs. Lopez, Anger Management, The Drew Carey Show, and George Lopez), Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) has since evolved into one of the premier galleries of New Contemporary art. Its goal as an institution is to support the growth of artists, from the young and emerging to the well-known and internationally established. CHG represents a diverse collection of international artists, primarily influenced by today's pop culture and collectively encompassing style genres such as New Figurative Art, Pop Surrealism, Neo Pop, Graffiti, and Street Art. Located in downtown Los Angeles (571 S. Anderson St. Los Angeles, CA 90033) in a robust 12,000-square-foot building, CHG presents new exhibitions approximately every six weeks. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm. For more information, visit CoreyHelfordGallery.com
All photos courtesy and copyright Adrian Cox, published with permission