PHILADELPHIA – Tiger Strikes Asteroid is pleased to announce the opening of its September, 2010 exhibition, Punctum(s), a solo exhibit of photographs, drawings and sculpture by gallery member Adam Blumberg.

Punctum; or that crucial, poignant prick of memory, recognition or epiphany in the face of an aesthetic or other intense experience, is inherently related to what it is poking from – similarly with punctuation: the adjacent aesthetic plains serve as the launching pad and lynchpin for Blumberg’s itch and the viewer’s subsequent scratch. Point-of-view is a specialized set of punctum which Blumberg provides, especially in his photographs. In one,Parking Lot, the Springfield Mile, we look down from a height, on to a “low-brow” attraction of steel and skin: it carries the sexualized numbness of a Richard Prince found photograph, but is reinvigorated by its accidental and exaggerated theatrical setting. Another scene we look up to, as if from the grassroots, accentuating the erupting fireworks, as well as highlighting the punctum which so dogs Blumberg. His works – the photographs and sculptures especially – thus serve as quietly arresting stills and mementos of the “accident which pricks”, in the words of Roland Barthes.

Born in St. Louis, MO and raised amongst the horseradish fields and abandoned coal mines in a rural suburb, Adam Blumberg is an avid baseball fan and enjoys collecting smashed pennies.  He earned an MFA from ICP-Bard in 2007 and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002.  From 2004 to 2005, Adam participated in the Research Program at the Center for Contemporary Art in Kitakyushu, Japan.  His work has been exhibited in England, Germany and Japan in addition to the United States including participation in recent local exhibitions, Vox V at Vox Populi Gallery, and Philadelphia Pickle Fest at Storage Gallery.