Multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams celebrates contemporary Black culture, joy, and leisure in his works, while expanding the dialogue around these life experiences from the African Diaspora. His Situation Comedy exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in London highlighted how leisure is enlivened by fantasy. While his piece “My Turn, Your Turn, Our Turn” in the Carnival exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York highlights the spectacle and power of Black joy. Though he is known for his elaborate multimedia creations, Adams’ artistry expands beyond visual art. In 2025, he released a limited-edition, capsule collection with Marc Jacobs, dropped a Movado watch collaboration, and he curated two decades of his work in his self-titled book — which was published through Phaidon. With his rich legacy of work, which has been covered in several publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times, Adams also was honored with the Art House Award from Housing Works and received the 2025 Native Son Award. Adams centers Black art in every space as an Associate Professor at the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at CUNY Brooklyn College, as curator for Baltimore’s $1M Inviting Light public art project, and as the creator of Baltimore’s Scout Art Fair.