In 2008, Adam Pendleton began to examine the Dadaist pursuit through the lens of Black Dada, specifically referencing American poet Amiri Baraka’s 1964 poem ›Black Dada Nihilismus‹ and, inevitably, German poet Hugo Ball’s seminal ›Dada-Manifest‹ of 1916, though not tethered to either. Pendleton’s approach reinvigorated contemporary abstract painting by infusing it with the subversive energy of Dada and the textual disruptions of Conceptual art, blurring the boundaries between language, image, and form in a manner that resonates with our increasingly frenetic, fast paced, and fragmented visual culture.
Through this investigation, the artist created a new set of visual and structural constraints akin to those of the Dadaists but designed with the tensions between painting, drawing, and photography in mind… [These works] are made of two large panels, one above the other, stamped with one or two of the letters from the words ›Black‹ and ›Dada.‹ These letters are set on the canvas somewhere in a grid visible only to the artist but anchored by the seam of the two panels, which divides the painting at its middle. The letters hang, fall, or float depending on their placement.
The effect is both unsettling and enthralling… In his quest to upend and reimagine abstraction, grounded in history, Pendleton has charted a mode of painting that—irreverent, relentless, and powerful—encourages us to see the world in new terms.
Originally, the paintings bore the barely decipherable image of geometric forms borrowed from Sol LeWitt’s 1970s Minimalist Incomplete Open Cube sculptures. They have evolved over years of work, but retain their basic structure, giving the artist the fourth dimension of time with which to study and record his own progress.
Pendleton’s newest works have emerged as multilayered, chromatic studies derived from his daily studio practice. The artist creates loosely painted compositions on paper, incorporating geometric forms, drips, splatters, sprays, text, and inky fragments evocative of broken letters, pieces he has amassed in a vast visual library. He then photographs these initial compositions and, through a meticulous screen printing process, layers them onto shifting grounds of red, purple, green, and blue. In their dark radiance, they evoke the ghosts of Mondrian, Miró, LeWitt, and, indeed, Warhol, haunting the back alleys of New York, tagging walls with hastily rendered primary forms and automatic writing, covering the mysterious stained outlines of posters long removed—a nocturnal raid resulting in a poetic, minimalist palimpsest of urban angst…. The effect is both unsettling and enthralling… In his quest to upend and reimagine abstraction, grounded in history, Pendleton has charted a mode of painting that—irreverent, relentless, and powerful—encourages us to see the world in new terms.
Coinciding with Berlin Art Week, Pace will open ›spray light layer emerge‹, an intimate selection of paintings and works on paper from Adam Pendleton’s ›Black Dada‹ and ›Untitled (Days)‹ bodies of work, presented across both floors of Die Tankstelle, the gallery’s new space in Berlin. The exhibition’s title, ›spray light layer emerge‹, reflects the various ›acts‹ played out in the Black Dada paintings: materially, theoretically, poetically, and ultimately, visually. The exhibition will be on view from 11 SEP through 2 NOV 2025.
Credits for images: Adam Pendleton, Black Dada (D), 2025: Black Dada (B), 2025; Untitled (days of drawing), 2023 © Adam Pendleton, courtesy Pace Gallery