Indie rock musician Adam Green’s “Hybridized” art is exhibited in New York

Adam Green’s latest exhibition at Dimin in New York has it all. Green is not only a visual artist, but also co-founder of the lo-fi anti-folk duo The Moldy Peaches. The band, consisting of Green and Kimya Dawson, rose to popularity in the early 2000s, spurred by their use in the soundtrack of the 2007 film JunoGreen’s new solo show comes after several breaks he took to Pursue solo projects inside and outside the music industry.

“Transfiguration of the comedian” consists of 10 paintings and traces Green’s artistic career from multiple perspectives. Green has always explored multiple creative avenues throughout his career and this latest exhibition is no exception. He has released 10 solo albums, the cult film of 2016 Aladdina graphic novel entitled War and Paradise (2019), and is currently working on a script. From the outside, these may seem like separate projects, but they are all closely connected and that larger polymath approach is summed up in this show.

Installation view of “Transfiguration of the Comedian” at Dimin. Photo courtesy of Dimin.

At the heart of the oil paintings in this exhibition is the comedian, a figure that Green has developed over the past few years. Green sees the comedian as a kind of deity, representing both a critique of the world we live in today and an inner world of his own creation.

“The comedian is kind of a god of novelty, unable to create anything new. And I’m just generally impressed by AI’s ability to instantly hybridize things. That’s one thing (AI) is really good at, just mixing things up. When I do my own art, I like to build it in my own head with hybrid materials. If I can start with materials that have different meanings to me, the whole artwork becomes interconnected and it almost becomes like a landscape,” Green said.

Adam Green, Comedian Mandala (2022). Photo courtesy of Dimin.

The paintings themselves, which depict the comedian in myriad forms, contain multiple layers of meaning based on pop culture, with references to Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse and video game characters. Spirituality is a theme that often comes up.

Although Green has an indie rock background, he has also been part of the commercial art world for over 20 years, exhibiting at galleries such as Hole and Deitch Projects, among others. He even worked as an art dealer for a while. That’s how Robert Dimin, the owner of Dimin, and Green met – at a show at Hole in 2012 – and stayed in touch.

Installation view of “Transfiguration of the Comedian” at Dimin. Photo courtesy of Dimin.

When Green’s recent work returned from Greece, where it was exhibited at Allouche Benias, Dimin saw an opportunity to show the paintings. He noted that the gallery is an artist-focused space, a mission reflected in its programming and location in Tribeca, a neighborhood that has historically been a hotbed of experimentation and the avant-garde. Green’s current exhibition is very much a reflection of the downtown scene’s past and present.

“We’re trying to do interesting, exciting things and appeal to a broader community. We want to participate in the rock community and the downtown scene, as well as the elite academic arts scene. I want to be a place for everything as much as possible,” Dimin said.

Adam Green, Comedian Goddess (Detail) (2022). Photo courtesy of Dimin.

For Green there is a lot of Crossobetween his musical and artistic practice – the media fuel each other. He can often be seen walking around the streets of New York like a modern Flaneur with his recorder and notepad ready. He likes to go for walks to “find a natural rhythm,” and when an idea for a song or piece of art comes to him, he writes it down. This analogue approach—his own form of hybridization without AI—was key to his artistic work.

“I think my whole process is basically walking around the city, writing in my notebook and thinking freely. Then I go through my notes later and make my works out of them. For the last 15 years, that’s essentially what I’ve been doing,” Green said. “Walking around Manhattan is a kind of memory museum.”

“Transfiguration of the comedian“ is on view at Dimin, 406 Broadway Fl. 2, New York, through August 17.