Adam Sena exploits Art, Cultural Codes and Semiotics Through a Humorous and Queer Praxis
Image: Adam Sena, Gay Bomb, 2019, Oils & Spray paint, 180 x 200 cm
British painter Adam Sena graduated in 2019 from Camberwell College of Arts – one of the campuses at the world-leading University of the Arts London. Sena has also lived and studied in Leipzig, Germany as a guest student at HGB – Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Sena’s works are made through a process of pre-medicated and improvised decisions, and images that are sourced from phone photography, the internet or manipulated digitally.
Image: Adam Sena, Ghosted, 2019, Oils & Mixed media on canvas, 156 x 198cm
His methodology expands on the traditional “male nude” text in painting by approaching the medium of painting in a playful and unserious way. His work has an integral role in representing queer identity, which is evident in his kitsch aestheticism that could have been codified as “bad painting” or ”untrue”art to many historical scholars. Influenced by Drag culture, Sena investigates absurdity, joy and the artificial.
“I signify this, sometimes through ‘draggily’-painted faces. But my main aim is to capture the free-play of cultural texts and both the essence of façade and duplicity.” Says Adam Sena. “In this way, I can discover the ‘truths’ in my painting through the ‘untruths’ of appropriated signs; this is why I identify my work as Camp. I see my paintings as performances, as hybrid objects that are both cheeky and celebrative but also dark and rude.”
Image: Adam Sena, Techno Wald, 2018, Oil paint on canvas, 160 x 130cm
Image: Adam Sena, The Garden, 2019, Oil & Spray paint on canvas, 156 x 170 cm
His paintings are embedded with queer theories, military influences, sarcastic images and dark humor. In his practice, Sena carefully constructs bizarre compositions that manifest scenes and resonates sights from a gay crossing park and a battlefield. Through this, he achieves a funny and intoxicating sense of otherness. .
By creating awkward compositions that connote an ironic word-play that sometimes mock the painted image and the notion of painting itself, Sena explores and celebrates the mode of Camp. Sena describes his work as “internet aware,” he challenges censorship in contemporary society and social media, trying to bypass Instagram’s algorithm by depicting gay pornography.
