AUGUST 2011

Staff Profile: Adam

Continuing our series of staff profiles, we would like to introduce Adam, storage manager at Denbigh. Like most fine art service companies, almost all of the employees at Denbigh are artists, and Adam is no exception.

Adam grew up and did most of his schooling in Niagara Falls, Ontario. As our eastern Canadian link, he has been an endless source of small town logistics for our eastern Canadian art shuttle.

A talented photographer and artist from an early age, Adam received his BFA from the Ontario College of Art in 2001. He then journeyed to London, England and earned his Master of Fine Arts from the prestigious Goldsmiths College. While obtaining his degrees, he exhibited at the Katherine Mulherin Gallery, Toronto. Eventually his travels landed him on the western shore of Canada and he joined Denbigh in 2007. Group shows in Vancouver, including one during the summer of 2011 at the Or Gallery, have kept him busy when not maintaining the Denbigh storage.

Adam’s attention to detail, documentation skills and photography experience made him a natural to head up the storage department at Denbigh. The fact that he enjoys being alone in climate controlled vaults with no natural light was a factor as well. Most of the other Denbighs will attest to the observation that Adam seems to have become “ageless” since working in such optimum environmental conditions. A tribute to the perfect storage conditions that he has dedicated himself to achieve.

Adam’s dark wit and endless “Adamisms” seem to flourish under these conditions as well, and he keeps everyone at Denbigh entertained. Occasionally we unlock the storage vault and let Adam out to do special projects that require his expertise in collection management. He recently headed up the team involved with the Alert Bay exhibition exchange (see blogs for Alert Bay I and Alert Bay II). The project required hours of detailed record-keeping, meticulous installations and fine photography. The set-up and de-installation of both exhibitions were a great success and the artifacts in each exhibit are now safely home.


Since Adam is well-known for his mockery of the superficial and glamorous, we will end our Adam profile in Hollywood magazine fashion:

Favourite book  –  Heinrich Von Kleist: The Short Stories
Favourite art magazine  – Artforum
Favourite artist  –  Willem de Kooning
Favourite artwork   –  “The Flagellation” (circa 1460), Piero Della Francesca
Favourite quote  –  Franz Kafka, “The true way goes over a rope which is not stretched at any great height, but just above the ground. It seems more designed to make people stumble than to be walked upon.”