Adam Stone: Glossy Facades and Hidden Decay

Adam Stone: Art Kollectiv Interview

Cane Toad, Fort Delta

A forlorn boy gazes at his feet, arm bandaged and bloody with lilac bruises creeping up along his jaw. The image is a self portrait; a keepsake of a fallen athlete wearing his injuries as tokens of fearlessness, but not of triumph. The unseen impact is immortalised as a monumental bronze sculpture, memorialising the tumbling skater in a permanently suspended nosedive, never to realise the fall. This is the mark of Melbourne-based artist Adam Stone, as he takes society’s adoration of professional athletics and works to magnify it ten-fold. If we lived in a universe where athletes really were gods, Stone's work would be a shrine to our gaudy faith. His work's absurd humour and sculptural environments explore ideas of hubris in professional sport and politics to challenge archetypes of masculinity and the commercialisation of western capitalism.

Having graduated with Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2013, Stone since has gone on to exhibit both locally and internationally, while completing residencies in both New York and Beijing. His work has been awarded some of Australia's most prestigious art prizes, and is currently held in both public and private collections in Australia and Asia. In early 2016, Stone founded Melbourne-based LON Gallery with photographer Elle Ross. 

You can read the full interview for Art Kollectiv here