Adrian Loving

HANDS ON THE PULSE!, 2023

Artist Statement:

Global travel, curiosity and sharing are really the driving forces of my artistic practice. Since my childhood, music has been a lifesaver and a source of spiritual and emotional release. My academic and aesthetic side loves the study and storytelling of art. Art and music are mostly in harmony but often fight for space in my life. Whether it’s creating a video installation or developing an album over months time, I selfishly seem to choose them over many other demands of my time. I also love diving down the limitless rabbit hole of learning about art’s infinite evolution and optimistic possibilities for my creative future. My journey as an artist has taken me through the careers of teaching, music making, and technological experimentation for the past 25 years. As a conscious individual, I have embraced the need to discover, celebrate, and contribute to the necessary dialogue of the Black diasporic experience through my work. I am constantly searching for new challenges and opportunities to take risks and to create experiences in new mediums. “Doors open for the prepared and success awaits the steadfast!  

BIO:

Adrian Loving is a published contemporary art and music historian, educator, visual artist, and DJ. Throughout his 20+ year career in the arts, Loving has curated exhibitions, music festivals, and public programming at various museums, cultural institutions, and art fairs including the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art (NMAFA), IDB International Development Bank, National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC) and the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Miami Art Week and CAN Art Fair Ibiza. 

 Loving’s consistent participation in music festivals, art fairs, and conferences have further developed his unique perspective on contemporary pop culture, and is currently developing research on Black music culture in Spain and other countries in the African diaspora. In his most recent book project Fade to Grey, Loving explores the intersection of androgyny, art, and fashion with a focus on musicians from the 1980s including David Bowie, Grace Jones, and Prince. Loving was invited to speak at the Disco Conference at the University of Sussex, UK in 2018 and Black Portraitures Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016. His continued research in club culture has resulted in a series of panel discussions called Shoot to Thrill: Picturing Identity In Underground Dance Music. Adrian has also appeared in the 2021 PBS documentary Making Black America, and the forthcoming 2024 PBS short feature Black History in 2 Minutes (or so). 

 Loving is a working DJ and producer, which has him traveling extensively in the USA and abroad to Brazil, Malta, Spain, and South Africa to collaborate with musicians creating electronic soundscapes and dance tracks for the forthcoming spring 2024 release debut album Inner Temples: Travelscapes Vol.  Adrian’s talents for spotting music artists rooted in Jazz, Funk, Soul, and Afro-Diasporic music, has led to his curatorial development of the annual Rock The Park DC: Weekender featuring international talent including Jazzy Jeff, J.Rocc, Moodymann, Trouble Funk, and Lisa Shaw. He has performed at prominent spaces and events such as The White House Correspondent’s Dinner, First Avenue: 7th Street Entry, CCCB in Barcelona, and Worldwide Festival in France. 

 Loving currently maintains a full-time faculty position as an Instructor of Visual Art, at Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC.