Adam Saks studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen from 1993–1999. In 1996–1997 he studied under Professor Bernd Koberling at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin.
Adam Saks is a painter, draftsman, watercolorist, in short, an astounding inventor of images and besides that, an outstanding protagonist of his generation in Scandinavia. In his paintings figures, plants, symbols or writing appear, only to vanish in amorphous color or unbound surface-ornaments, in the next blink of an eye – just as the becoming and passing away of nature. Yet, compared to the Vanitas of human existence or a baroque memento mori, Adam Saks reveals an encouraging confirmation of live. His pictures are situated in a state of constant transformation, they bundle and unfold an immense swirl of impressions, memories, emotions and moods. A life in color which occasionally loses itself and regains itself at another place as seen in the exhibition Inhaling Darkness Exhaling Galaxies at Kunstverein Reutlingen (Germany 2017)
In 2011 and 2012 Adam Saks devoted himself extensively to examining the relationship between human beings and nature, or the human figure as an integral part of the organic cycle of life. Multiple influences flow together in Adam Saks' paintings and paperworks. He lets himself drift through travel narratives; directly into the horror of plundering, pillaging and colonialism with its solitude and aggression (e.g. the French Foreign Legion); through compendiums of heraldry and emblemata; and out of cheap comics or tattoo magazines – seafarer's or criminal tattoos as traces of human presence.
Adam Saks has created several artist books with Schaefer Grafisk Vaerksted, Copenhagen. Among them Deep Drawings (2004), Raid (2004) and Fill Your Hands (2007) are made in the monochrome technique of direct transfer in a limited edition of 250 copies each. Elephant Island (2009) is a faksimile of a large ink drawing which – like James Joyce's ulyssian stream of consciousness – waves and weaves itself as well as a massive array of motifal flotsam throughout the whole 29,7 × 630 cm long span of the book rawly bound as Japanese paperback.
Adam Saks has had numerous institutional solo exhibitions, e.g., Lieu D´art Contemporain in Narbonne (France, 2008), the Nordiska Akvarellmuseet (Sweden, 2009), the ARoS – Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Denmark, 2010), the Städtische Galerie Offenburg (Germany, 2012), Kunsthal Nord - Aalborg (Denmark, 2016), Kunstverein Reutlingen (Germany, 2017)
Awards (selection)
2015 Kjell Nupen Memorial Grant
2009 Niels Wessel Bagges Art Foundation
Biennales & Triennials (selection)
2016 International Print Biennale, Newcastle, England
2010 False Recognition, 14th Vilnius Painting Triennial, Vilnius, Lithuania
Exhibitions (selection)
2017 Adam Saks, Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen, Germany
2016 Setting Sail In A Teadrop Of Fear And Desire, Kunsthal NORD, Aalborg, Denmark
2015 Strange Fates Some Fruits Are Given, Galleri Møller-Witt, Aarhus, Denmark
2015 Adam Saks, Galleri Ismene, Trondheim, Norway
2014 I Am A Ghost I Am A Totem I Am A Still Life, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2014 Adam Saks, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2014 Flora Empire, Galerie Møller Witt, Denmark
2013 Portrait of the Moon & a Single Blue Frog, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2012 Ende Neu, Städtische Galerie, Offenburg, Germany
2012 Atropa, Bourouina Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2011 Follow You Follow Me, Bourouina Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Portrait of the Moon & a Single Blue Frog, Galerie Forsblom, text: Leevi Haapala, 2013
Atropa, Gallery Bourouina, tekst: Christoph Tannert, 2012
Ende Neu, catalogue edited by Städtische Galerie Offenburg, texts by Gerlinde Brandenburger-Eisele, Christian Malycha and Roberto Ohrt, Offenburg, 2012
Follow You Follow Me, catalogue edited by Bourouina Gallery, interview with Adam Saks by David Ulrichs, Berlin, 2011
Nausikaa, catalogue edited by Dorothee Heine and Christian Malycha, Q.H.S.O.I.Q.O.C.M.S. 4, Berlin 2010
Visual Voodoo, catalogue edited by ARoS - Aarhus Kunstmuseum, texts by Marie Nipper and Jens Erik Sørensen, Aarhus 2010
Dry your Eyes, catalogue edited by Galleri Christoffer Egelund, text by Tine Nygaard, Copenhagen 2010
Sea Level – Sailors and Prisoners. Coloured Pencil Drawings, edited by Josef Kleinheinrich, text by Kay Heymer, Buchkunst Kleinheinrich, Münster 2009
Lonestar, catalogue edited by the Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, texts by Bernd Koberling, Bera Nordal and Björn Springfeldt, Skärhamn, 2009
Sacré Nom de Dieu!, catalogue edited by Bourouina Gallery, text by Christian Malycha, Berlin, 2009
Victime de Sa Force, catalogue edited by Lieu D´art Contemporain, text by Thorsten Sadowsky, Narbonne 2008
Transgressor, catalogue edited by Galleri Veggerby, Copenhagen 2006
Fatalité, catalogue edited by Vikingsberg Kunsthal, text by Björn Springfeldt, Helsingborg 2005
Machete, catalogue edited by Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, text by Thorsten Sadowsky, Tønder 2003
