MAC ADAMS
Actus Reus
August 31 – October 9, 2026
Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY Old Westbury
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 9, 2026, 4:00 – 7:00 pm
The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY Old Westbury presents Mac Adams: Actus Reus, a career-spanning exhibition featuring more than forty works by the internationally recognized artist and longtime faculty member. Bringing together six decades of photography, sculpture, installation, and recent AI-constructed imagery, the exhibition traces Adams’s lifelong investigation into narrative, perception, and the unstable boundary between appearance and reality.
The title Actus Reus—Latin for “guilty act,” referring to the physical deed that constitutes a crime—reflects Adams’s decades-long engagement with crime narratives, evidence, and ambiguity. Throughout his career, he has crafted images and objects that function as clues without offering definitive answers. Viewers must act as investigators, constructing meaning from what is present, what is absent, and what occurs entirely outside the frame.
Central to his practice is the “narrative void”—the deliberate space between images or objects where the viewer completes the story. Actus Reus spans several foundational series, including Mysteries (1972–), Post Modern Tragedies (1982–2010), Shadow (1988–), The Eye of Rodin (2018), and his latest project, American Pastoral (2025–).
In Post Modern Tragedies, Adams juxtaposes polished images of consumer luxury with reflected scenes of violence and political unrest, exposing the volatility beneath surfaces of prosperity. This exploration of hidden space continues in The Eye of Rodin, shot at Auguste Rodin’s former home in Meudon, France, which utilizes a reflective gazing ball to reveal environments beyond the camera’s conventional field of vision.
The survey concludes with American Pastoral; taking its title from Philip Roth’s novel, this new series marks a significant conceptual shift by using AI to construct fictional scenes of contemporary America, where pipelines, detention infrastructure, and suburban developments appear as plausible realities rather than documentary records.
“These are fictions, but they are not lies,” Adams notes of the new work. By shifting from traditional photography to AI construction, he questions what happens when an image no longer captures a specific historical moment, but instead visualizes broader cultural probabilities.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, Mac Adams: Actus Reus, featuring an essay by renowned photography historian Michel Frizot. The catalogue was designed by Nathan Brutzman and produced with support from OW STEAM.
Artist Biography
Mac Adams (b. 1943, Brynmawr, Wales) studied at Cardiff College of Art before moving to the United States in 1967 for graduate studies at Rutgers University. There, he immersed himself in the experimental art scene shaped by emerging conceptual and post-minimalist practices. By the 1970s, Adams became a pioneer of Narrative Art, using staged photography, sequential images, and intentionally incomplete storylines to invite viewers to construct meaning. His work has been exhibited globally, with features at Documenta 6 (Kassel, 1977) and in major European and American museums.
Beginning in the 1980s, Adams expanded his focus beyond the photographic frame into sculpture and installation. His celebrated shadow works use precise illumination to transform seemingly abstract objects into recognizable images—making light, space, and the viewer’s perspective vital components of the experience. The resulting tension between object and image deepens his lifelong fascination with the gap between evidence and interpretation.
Adams has also maintained a prolific public art practice, completing nearly twenty commissions globally. His most renowned project, the New York Korean War Veterans Memorial at Battery Park (1991), stands as one of the earliest major monuments dedicated to the conflict in the United States. These public works bring his spatial concepts into architectural and civic realms, utilizing light, shadow, reflection, and physical movement to alter public perception.
In 1988, Adams joined the Visual Arts Department at SUNY Old Westbury, teaching for three decades until his retirement in 2018. Throughout this tenure, he balanced a vibrant international career with a dedicated mentorship that influenced generations of emerging artists.
Mac Adams: Actus Reus
August 31–October 9, 2026
Amelie A. Wallace Gallery
SUNY College at Old Westbury
Campus Center, Main Level
Old Westbury, NY 11568
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, September 9, 2026, 4:00–7:00 pm
The artist will be in attendance.
Gallery Hours:
Monday, Wednesday: 12:00–7:00 pm
Tuesday: 10:00 am–7:00 pm
Thursday: 12:30–7:00 pm
Friday–Saturday: 12:00–5:00 pm
