Adam Justice

Adam N. Justice came to UNC Charlotte from the Mint Museum in Charlotte, where he was Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art.  A Virginia native, he holds degrees in art history from Radford University (Radford, VA) and Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond), where his master’s thesis addressed the evolving effects of sign theory in mid-century American art.

Adam’s career includes an array of curated exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, numerous essays and critiques written for exhibition catalogues and regional publications, and various appointments as judge/juror for regional and national arts competitions, including PhotoNOLA (New Orleans), The Hunting Art Prize (Houston, TX), and Gasparilla Festival of the Arts (Tampa, FL) and the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art (Charleston, SC). He has served as the Gallery Associate at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Anderson Gallery, the Chief Curator at the William King Art Museum in Abingdon, VA, and the Curator of Art at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, FL. While in Florida, he also helped found Outer Space, a contemporary art gallery and studio residency program in Winter Haven, where he served as co-curator and resident artist.

Adam still maintains a modest studio space at his home in Charlotte, where he explores the formal intersections between drawing, collage, and acrylic.

STAFF SPOTLIGHT

Education: I received my MA in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004.

Hometown: I grew up in Honaker, VA, a small railroad town in southwestern Virginia.

What medium is your artistic practice and how did you become interested in art/design? I haven’t maintained my own studio in years, but I worked primarily in acrylic and collage. I was really interested in geometric abstraction, so much so that it was hard to shift gears. As I relocated and changed job titles, I decided my creative energies were best spent helping other artists build exhibitions of their works. Art initially became a serious focus for me when I was 5-years-old and my father enrolled in a Bob Ross instructional class. Watching my dad focus so intently at his easel made me realize that art could be an ambition rather than just a pastime. 

Do you participate in any community cultural activities or work in the Charlotte arts/design community? The past year has required me to really focus on

my day-to-day work at UNC Charlotte and my family. But, I have served in the past as a guest juror and/or a moderator for community art programming for the McColl Center, Goodyear Arts, Elder Gallery, Mint Museum, Sozo Gallery, Winthrop University, and Hodges Taylor Gallery.

Can you tell us about any recent projects you’ve worked on? All of my recent projects have been exhibitions at UNC Charlotte. I focus more on curating these days.

What is your favorite thing about UNC Charlotte or The College of Arts + Architecture? The people. And by that, I don’t only mean individuals, but also the relationships and the ways in which CoA+A staff and faculty work so well together. There is a powerful creative glue that allows all of us to work as one cohesive group.

What do you like to do for fun? Anything outdoors, but especially hiking and camping. I’ve found a new love for identifying wild plants and searching for new remote places to explore in the mountains of North Carolina. I also love spending time and sharing adventures with my 6-year-old daughter. Otherwise, loud concerts and pinball.