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David Nolan Gallery’s exhibition “Alice in the Land of Violence” is Valerio Adami’s first New York show in more than 20 years. It brings together 16 paintings and 15 drawings, mostly from 1962 to 1967, alongside a painting completed this year, highlighting how Adami combined Pop Art’s graphic forms with expressionist distortion and other influences.
David Nolan Gallery has opened “Alice in the Land of Violence,” a New York exhibition of 31 works by Italian artist Valerio Adami, marking his first show in the city in more than 20 years. The presentation is centered on paintings and drawings made between 1962 and 1967, with one recent painting offering a view of the artist’s work at age 91.
The exhibition includes 16 paintings and 15 drawings. All but one date from the five-year period between 1962 and 1967; the exception is “Hotel Pulitzer,” completed this year. The gallery’s show also inaugurates its new, larger space in Tribeca, according to the review published by Hyperallergic.
Hyperallergic’s review describes Adami’s work as combining the flat, saturated colors and dark outlines associated with Pop Art with distorted figures linked to expressionism. The resulting images, the review argues, resist straightforward interpretation: their shapes and words can remain ambiguous rather than pointing to a single, clear reading.
The works include “Auto-lavaggio (Car Wash)” (1964), made with pencil, watercolor and tempera on paper, and “Blam” (1962), an acrylic painting on canvas. The review describes the show as a focus on work produced during a period of wider change in art, while emphasizing that Adami drew on influences beyond Pop Art.
Adami Beyond Pop Art
The exhibition brings a substantial group of Adami’s early work back into view in New York, where he has not had a show in more than two decades. For visitors, the central question is not simply whether the work fits the Pop Art label, but how it combines that movement’s graphic clarity with imagery that is psychologically unsettled and difficult to decode.
That tension helps explain the review’s description of Adami’s art as both “hot and cold”: its clean outlines and bright colors can suggest control, while its distorted figures and uncertain forms pull in a more expressive direction. The pairing of historical works with a painting completed in 2026 also places the artist’s long career in view, though the exhibition is weighted heavily toward the 1960s.
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A Cross-Border Artistic Formation
Adami was born in Bologna in 1935 and studied in Milan before moving to Paris in 1955. The review says he met artists Roberto Matta and Wifredo Lam there. In the late 1950s and afterward, he traveled regularly, spending time in London and New York as well as South America and India, and formed connections with artists, writers and philosophers.
Hyperallergic traces elements of Adami’s visual language to several sources. It links fragmented machinery and fantastical architecture to Surrealism, including Matta, and hybrid human-animal forms to Lam. It also identifies distorted bodies associated with Francis Bacon and Oskar Kokoschka, alongside Pop Art’s saturated colors and black contours. The review’s account is that Adami transformed these influences into a distinctive style rather than adopting any one of them wholesale.
“His syncretic style melds Pop Art’s cool, outlined forms with expressionism’s figural distortions, resulting in a perturbing ambiguity.”
— Hyperallergic’s review of the exhibition
What the Exhibition Leaves Open
The available source does not give the exhibition’s closing date, admission details or a full account of how the works are arranged. It also does not provide the painting’s precise completion date beyond saying it was finished “this year.” The claim that “Hotel Pulitzer” shows no loss of acuity is the reviewer’s assessment, not an independently measured finding.
The review offers an interpretation of Adami’s influences and style, rather than a definitive account of how the artist himself understands each work. It does not provide a detailed artist statement or explain the specific meaning of the exhibition’s title, “Alice in the Land of Violence.”
The Show’s New York Run
The exhibition is on view at David Nolan Gallery’s new Tribeca space. Readers seeking practical details such as visiting hours and the closing date should check the gallery’s current listing, as those details are not included in the source material. The gallery has not been reported here as announcing a later venue or a related public program.
For now, the clearest next opportunity is to see the works together: the gallery’s presentation places Adami’s 1960s paintings and drawings alongside a recent painting, allowing visitors to compare work separated by decades. Further details about the show’s schedule or programming remain unconfirmed in the source provided.
Key Questions
What is “Alice in the Land of Violence”?
It is an exhibition of 31 works by Valerio Adami at David Nolan Gallery in New York: 16 paintings and 15 drawings, mostly made between 1962 and 1967.
Why is the New York exhibition notable?
According to Hyperallergic, it is Adami’s first New York show in more than 20 years. It also opens the gallery’s new, larger Tribeca space.
What styles influenced Adami’s work?
The review identifies elements of Pop Art, Surrealism and expressionism, including saturated colors, dark outlines, fragmented imagery and distorted figures.
Does the show include recent work?
Yes. The exception to the exhibition’s mainly 1962–67 works is “Hotel Pulitzer,” which the source says Adami completed in 2026 at age 91.
How long is the exhibition open?
The source material does not state the closing date or visiting hours. Check David Nolan Gallery’s current listing for up-to-date visitor information.
Source: rss
