Adam Chamy
Adam Chamy is a Palestinian-Texan mixed media artist and architect whose work shifts between the celestial and the theatrical. In abstract gestures, mixed media portals, and larger-than-life portraits, they explore cultural and personal memory myth. Drawing from a blend of identities, Adam weaves together high camp and soft mysticism — often layering acrylics, ephemera, and found materials. Their latest work expands into portraiture, staging characters that blur persona, ritual, and satire. Based in D.C., Adam paints with one foot in the cosmos and the other in the living room — intimate, planetary, and unbothered.
@adamchamy
She Dreamt Her Eyelashes Were Fireworks Above a Story They Couldn’t Ban
Mixed media on canvas , 72” x 48”
She Dreamt Her Eyelashes Were Fireworks and That Her Story Was a Story They Couldn’t Ban features Petworth drag queen Tara Hoot. Tara has faced protests and harassment by Proud Boys and other far right groups for her drag story time events, yet continues to shine as a symbol of joyful resilience. Reading in a lush, theatrical setting, Tara transforms into the mystical queer archetype of truth teller- someone who destabilizes norms of gender and politics through performance. Her eyes glance away distracted as she reads "Something, Someday" by African-American poet laureate Amanda Gordan alluding both Tara's drag story hours but also how intersectionality and queer performance can bring hope and perseverance. In juxtaposition sit queer and activist themed children's books banned in red states, a campy cat bedazzled in jewelry, and a newspaper proclaiming the world on fire. The setting is both cozy and campy; violent and garish. Suddenly, the lifesize canvas of Tara isn't just reading to children but inviting us all to persevere and be our honest glamourous selves amid a chaotic and violent world.