A career-spanning perspective
A new exhibition at David Nolan Gallery brings Valerio Adami's work back to New York for the first time in more than two decades. Titled Alice in the Land of Violence, the show features 16 paintings and 15 drawings, most created between 1962 and 1967.
The presentation also includes Hotel Pulitzer, a painting Adami completed in 2026, at age 91. Born in Bologna in 1935, the artist developed his practice through international travel and exchanges with artists and thinkers across Europe, the United States, South America and India.
Adami's work has been linked to Pop Art, but his visual language draws on a wider range of ideas. Surrealism, expressionism and the bold colors and outlines associated with Pop all inform his compositions. Rather than follow one movement, he reshaped these influences into images marked by ambiguous forms and words that invite multiple interpretations.
By placing early works alongside a recent painting, the exhibition highlights both the evolution and continuity of Adami's approach. Its blend of artistic traditions points to how cross-cultural exchange can keep visual languages open to new possibilities.
