Adam Shirley

Adam Shirley’s works arise from an investigation into the relationships between two and three dimensional objects, material and scale. Shirley explores form and volume in model-sized flat pieces that leave the interpretation of scale and function open to the viewer.

Working primarily with steel, a material typically associated with utility and function, Shirley creates objects that exist in a state “somewhere between a thought or idea and the process of transformation into physical form.” The results are works that engage the viewer into exploring the potentials of each object or form, not so much to arrive at a a definition of what they are, but simply to enjoy the journey of envisioning what they could be.

Adam Shirley received his BFA in 1993 from the College for Creative Studies (CCS), in Detroit, Michigan, and a Master of Fine Arts in Metalsmithing Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 2010. Shirley has been recently awarded the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship.