Uncensored by AdeY at Clamp Gallery New York

AdeY’s identity is unknown, but the photographs speak for themselves. The art is in the borderland of photography and performance and depicts the naked body in playful formations and in minimalistic rooms and empty landscapes. On May 16, the exhibition Uncensored by AdeY opens at CLAMP in New York and will continue through May 25.

This is the final stop in AdeY's Uncensored world tour which has been exhibited in Los Angeles (Galerie XII), London (The Little Black Gallery), Stockholm (Fotografiska), and Falsterbo, Sweden (Falsterbo Photo Art Museum).

No one really knows who AdeY is. The British-Swedish artist’s real name, age and place of residence are still unknown. AdeY left a career as a professional dancer, something evident in the photographs which combine photography, choreography, and performance. They have published a series of poetic photobooks and exhibited in several of the world’s best known galleries and museums, including in London, Los Angeles, Helsinki and Stockholm.

''I began taking photographs when I worked as a professional dancer and felt the need to erase what I had done before to be taken seriously. People doubt you when you change art forms. I also do not want people to focus on my background but rather my body of work,'' says AdeY.

The forms of the exhibition Uncensored began to take shape in 2015–2016, when AdeY, during a period of intense travel, was struck by the sexualization of bodies in advertising images. Then and there, a desire was awoken to show the body just as “only” a body, without reducing it into a sexualized symbol. The images in the exhibit are playful and experimental, with bodies often depicted in choreographed poses or formations. The viewer is given the right to interpret the images, which is an important part of AdeY’s artistry.

''We are happy to continue to support emerging artists like AdeY, whose photographs of bodies illustrate emotions of strength, solitude and vulnerability. AdeY is an artist with incredible potential and whose images continually challenge the viewer,'' says Brian Clamp of CLAMP.






AdeY
With a background in performance, choreography and contemporary dance, AdeY’s photographic works study subjects such as the human body’s balance, strength and physics. Here they photograph and portray the body in its purest form – bare, undressed and naked. The work seeks to create a non-sexualised and open-minded representation of humankind, which is based on a dream of acceptance.

Their choreographic works are first and foremost about people. Interested in the stories that bring a particular dancer to where they are in time and space, they challenge the social norm in ways that provokes audiences to both confirm and question their own beliefs. Adey’s works are politically motivated by cultural and social events that are occurring throughout the world; exploring how society defines who we are and how we are perceived.

A focus and attention to people’s right to differences drives the Swedish / British artist’s images, and here it is especially the differences that are about physics, gender, race and sexuality.

With a humorous and experimental approach, they seek to highlight our vulnerability, loneliness, and strengths, whilst capturing those little moments of social oppression, isolation, anxiety, and depression that appear to play a central role in the human condition. In practice, it is in many ways the perception of the body that is being challenged by the artist, based on their own background and experience of the human body, but it is also to a greater extent the perception of the viewer and the outside world, which is central to their artistic voice.

AdeY has exhibited widely in Europe including at The Finnish Museum of Photography, Fotogalleri Vasli Souza (Sweden & Norway), and at Unseen (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). His new photo-book UNCENSORED was published to coincide with his debut USA show at Galerie XII (2021-2022). The exhibition & second edition of the book was launched in London in May with The Little Black Gallery to coincide with Photo London, followed by shows in Paris and Oslo in the autumn.