Devotion Reconstructed

Broadway gallery is pleased to present, from February 1st through the 15th, the work of artist Adam Eckstrom. This will be Eckstrom’s first solo show in New York. The drawings, paintings and sculptures in the show are from his newest series titled “Devotion Reconstructed,” which he synonymously calls “Loveland.” It is “a series about falling in love,” he explains, “and in a way I never knew possible.”

Until recently, “Loveland” was a closed down theme park, a valley depleted of its water supply—a dump alongside Newtown Creek (a man-made waterway that separates parts of Brooklyn and Queens and built for trash barges). These sites are now being reconstructed through a new lens, according to Eckstrom. In this work, he shows us how the power of love has turned these desolate and depraved places into sites to be enjoyed and inhabited.

One of Eckstrom’s drawings is of the moment at which the dehydrated valley is being rushed upon by a desperately needed stream of water. Another shows a locked-down entrance to a deserted theme park. Around the corner from the entrance we see that the fence has been cut, someone has snuck in and has been using it once again. When examined closely, one can even see two four-leaf clovers falling in love inside the newly made opening. In yet another drawing, a pile of speakers, houseplants and braided rugs create a living room occupying the space opposite a trash dump on the canal.

This work is autobiographical in terms of Eckstrom’s current life situation. He sees it as a challenge to create because “it is both difficult to create critical work about love that is positive and equally hard find it in the contemporary world.”