E.J. McAdams is a poet, artist, and collaborator who lives in Harlem. He explores language and mark-making in the urban environment using procedures and improvisation with found and natural materials. One of his text-collages was included in the mail art exhibit “Focus Latin America: Art Is Our Last Hope” at Phoenix Art Museum. An ongoing series TRANSECTs was featured at The Volta and About Place Journal, and published as a chapbook by Sona Books. He was a founding board member of the interdisciplinary Laboratory of Art Nature and Dance (iLAND) from 2004-14 and curated the Social-Environmental-Aesthetics (SEA) reading series at Exit Art that featured poets, visual artists and activists in conversation from 2009-11.
Born 1971 in Chicago, USA
Education
1996 – 1998 Columbia University, New York, USA (MFA in Poetry)
1989 – 1993 College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, USA (B.A. in Philosophy)
Fellowships & Honors
2014 The interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature Dance (iLAND), iLAB Residency
2011 University of Michigan, Movement/Somatics/Writing Fellow
2010 The Center for Book Arts, Letterpress Workshop for Emerging Writers Fellowship
1999 “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Contest, Semi-finalist
One Person Exhibitions
2015 Trees Are Alphabets, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (09/26/2015-02/07/2016)
Group Exhibitions
2014 “Focus Latin America: Art Is Our Last Hope,” Phoenix Art Museum (10/01/2014 – 11/23/2014)
2010 “Fracking: Art and Activism Against the Drill,” Exit Art, New York, NY (12/07/2010 – 03/26/2011)
2008 “It’s Not Easy,” Exit Art, New York, NY (07/24/2008 – 08/29/2008)
Chapbooks, Anthologies
2015 “Bewilderness.” In Katie Holten’s About Trees. (Broken Dimanche Press, Berlin)
2014 Wayfaring: a poetic walk in public space. A group book of poems and documents. Chapbook. (Collectively published on the occasion of the iLANDing Laboratory Series, New York, NY)
2014 Selection in Water, Water Everywhere: Paean to a Vanishing Resource. Curated by Jennifer Heath. (baksun books & arts, Boulder, CO)
2012 TRANSECTs. Chapbook. (Sona Books, Chicago, IL)
2011 Selection in The Portable Boog Reader 5: An Anthology of New York City and Boston Poetry. Eds. David Kirshenbaum, Douglas Manson, etal. (Boog City, New York, NY)
2009 Selection in Speak for the Trees. Chosen by artist Katie Holten. (Marquand Books, Seattle, WA)
2008 4x4. Chapbook. (unarmed journal press, Minneapolis, MN)
2005 “BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM.” Postcard. Poste Series. (Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, NY)
Interviews, Talks, Panels (selection)
2013 Interview: “Phil Metres with E.J. McAdams.” The Conversant, May.
2008 Panelist: “Art as Intervention: A Roundtable.” NYFA Current.
2005 Keynote Speaker, Ear to the Earth Symposium, Electronic Music Foundation, December.
2004 Gallery Talk: “It’s the End of the Wild as We Know It (& I Feel Fine?),” on Alexis Rockman’s Manifest Destiny, Brooklyn Museum, July.
Public Collections
John Held, Jr. Papers at the Archive of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC