Brief candles
in her mind
Bright and tiny gems of memory
Brief candles burn so fine
Leaves a light inside where she can see
What makes it all worthwhile
Her sadness makes her smile

(The Zombies)

Adams and Ollman is pleased to present Her sadness makes her smile, an exhibition featuring an installation and paintings by American artist Joy Feasley (b. 1966, Buffalo, NY; lives and works in Philadelphia, PA). Central to the exhibition is a series of sculptural candles, made from ceramic and glass, that are meant to be named and bear a memory forward. The exhibition opens with a reception with the artist on Saturday, August 3 and is on view through August 31, 2024.

To share in joy is amongst the most profound of human experiences. Shared joy helps give form to life by demarcating moments of time, and imbuing them with meaning. Its experience creates connections, purpose and resiliency. But what does it mean to share in its shadow, grief? Her sadness makes her smile asks this question through a new series of sculptures that are meant to explore the performance and experience of shared grief via shared memory.

For Her sadness makes her smile, Feasley has made sculptures out of ceramic and glass that take the form of vigil candles, symbolic holders of a memory. Some in the series, entitled Beautiful friend, have been named by the artist, others can be named by those who will acquire them. In time, they may be gifted to another person, who then holds the memory of the candle’s namesake. With this project, Feasley expands the physical object into a community; she asks the viewer to imagine, to join and to act.

Beautiful friend comprises these sculptural works, as well as a number of paintings made with oil and flashe on linen. Across each panel, ethereal candles and flames rendered in subtle washes of color float in fields of color or the night sky and might be symbolic stand-ins for a person, an aura, a memory or a dream. These works propose that we connect with the mysteries of the world and embrace that which we can’t see or hold, know or explain.

Joy Feasley (b. 1966, Buffalo, NY; lives and works in Philadelphia, PA) has exhibited at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI; Fabric Workshop and Museum, Moore College of Art, Temple Contemporary Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Vox Populi, all Philadelphia, PA; Columbia College, Chicago, IL; and LUMP Gallery and Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC, among others. Feasley’s work is included in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the West Collection, all Philadelphia. She has been in residence at the Arts/Industry Residency Program, Kohler, WI; the Fabric Workshop and Museum Residency, Philadelphia, PA; Stelo Arts, Portland and Colton, OR; Acadia Summer Arts Program, Bar Harbor, ME; and the 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA. In 2011, she was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Her work is included in the collections of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. In 2020, Feasley and frequent collaborator Paul Swenbeck completed a major permanent installation for the Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Feasley received her BFA in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, and studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.