Joshua Adkins Sr (b. 1975, Colorado, USA) is currently based in London. He is a multimedia artist enrolled as an MA print student at the Royal College of Art. Josh received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography from Black Hills State University, located in Spearfish, South Dakota.
All proceeds from the sale of my work on the RCA Shopify will be donated to an RCA scholarship fund that will help provide material support for Afro-American or Black British Students in need.
Joshua Adkins Sr is a multimedia artist enrolled as an MA print student at the Royal College of Art. Before his academic journey, he had a career as a flight medic in the US Army. Josh served in both combat and non-combat humanitarian missions across three continents for over 15 years. His prior career, lived experience, and race have heavily influenced his artistic practice, as he was not permitted to speak out against systems in power. In contrast, he now directs his art practice on social and political issues in a questioning and playful praxis. He is a vocal advocate for acts of non-violent civil disobedience. His work investigates societal issues in ways that challenge the observer and hope to facilitate constructive conversation between strangers on current relevant issues that often divide our society. Josh often mixes pop transatlantic cultural references in his contemporary art practice. This combination offers insight into the shared experiences of many viewers across the social, political and geographical divides. Josh is experimenting and exploring the relationship between traditional printmaking techniques with the aided use of new digital technology to generate work.
"Approved Until Told Otherwise" was intended to be a text-based series of work displayed in the windows of the RCA. It was originally to be titled "Lost in Translation." It was made up of translated foreign pangrams in which meaning and functions lost their purposes. This proposal got lost in the institution's bureaucracy, resulting in the posting of "To Let". This critique was promptly removed. That action started a cat-and-mouse game of hanging artwork, only to have it taken down by the RCA without cause or Notice. One piece in the series is the reverse image of "R Mutt" (Fountain, Marcel Duchamp 1917). Much in the same way as Fountain forever changed art, the RCA has forever changed art education.
