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An artist with countless irons in the fire at all times, one of the bodies of work Derrick Adams has developed in recent years is Beauty World. A series of large-scale paintings began in 2019, these images depict mannequin-like portraits of men and women with steely gazes and expressive hairstyles. Inspired by the display windows of beauty shops, wig stores, and braiding and nail salons he often passes in his Brooklyn neighborhood, Adams created this series to reflect on cultural and social rituals connected to beauty. The resulting portraits construct and deconstruct demonstrations of self-representation. They explore Black identity and empowerment achieved through acts of styling, camouflaging, costuming, and adornment.
Where My Girls At? is part of the newest series in this body of work, which Gagosian debuted in a solo exhibition titled Derrick Adams: The Strip in South Korea earlier this month. In the earlier Beauty World images, Adams presented mannequin heads as portraits removed from their environment. Now, in the new works, Adams has taken a step back to depict the full display window filled with groupings or communities of mannequin heads adorned with colorful wigs, surrounded by other elements of the storefront and often framed by the exterior brick wall. In Where My Girls At? the cars passing by on the street behind the viewer are reflected in the glass of the display case, and one can imagine that their own reflection would coincide with the appearance of the mannequin head figure gazing out at them.
