Langen Foundation, Neuss · April 19 – September 2026
The title of the exhibition is a question. Yet, it is not the kind of question that seeks a definitive answer; rather, it is the kind that prefers to remain unanswered, to linger, and to exist within that very ambiguity. Can I Be? is the title of Adam Pendleton’s large-scale solo exhibition at the Langen Foundation. This expression forms a language for an identity, a form, or a moment escaping the confinement of fixed definitions.
Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1984, Pendleton is currently one of the most closely followed American artists on the international stage, with works in the collections of prestigious institutions such as MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Tate, and the Pinakothek der Moderne. However, what truly sets him apart from his contemporaries is not institutional success, but the powerful conceptual framework he established with his “Black Dada Manifesto,” penned in 2008. Written to highlight the relationship between Blackness and abstraction as a co-productive force, this manifesto is not a proclamation of absolute truths; rather, it is a flexible and constantly expanding proposition.
Searching within Tadao Ando’s Concrete
The Langen Foundation is built upon a former NATO missile base. The legendary architect Tadao Ando cloaks this heavy historical burden with concrete, light, and simplicity; or, depending on your perspective, he makes this weight much more visible. Instead of fighting against the dominant architecture of the space, Pendleton chooses to establish an organic dialogue with it.
Describing Ando’s architecture as “precise but also porous,” Pendleton notes that light, proportion, and movement are always present within the space. Rather than resisting this system, the artist’s works seem to seep into it. This relationship is materialized through shifts in scale throughout the exhibition: there is a rhythmic transition between small drawings that demand close, careful inspection and massive canvas and video works that directly confront the viewer’s body. For Pendleton, scale is not merely a physical condition; it is a way of thinking in itself.
A Video at the Threshold: Toy Soldier
The exhibition opens with a video work titled Toy Soldier, which focuses on the controversial Robert E. Lee Monument. Pendleton states that he made this decision to create both a spatial and a psychological threshold for the viewer. The black pavilion in which the video is shown functions as a sort of pause area—a breathing space and a point of contact before proceeding to the rest of the exhibition.
The Robert E. Lee Monument is a site where history and matter are relentlessly intertwined, and where ideology takes on a concrete form. Pendleton does not attempt to analyze this form analytically; he deconstructs it through light, sound, and time. He observes how the symbolic weight of the monument shifts over time. His goal is not to exonerate or condemn this structure, but to prepare a fresh ground so that it can be looked at with entirely new eyes.
Black Dada: A Manifesto, A Method
In Pendleton’s own words, Black Dada is a concept that opens up space for movement, contradiction, and hope, both theoretically and formally. This manifesto remains at the very center of the artist’s practice today—not as a barrier that defines limits, but as a compass that points the way. Within this framework, Blackness and abstraction become forces that do not ignore one another but, on the contrary, produce each other. This approach also detaches Pendleton from the purely formalist debates of abstract painting: every gesture, every layer, and every void in his work speaks in a direct relationship with history.
Pendleton does not expect the viewer to solve the work like a riddle or to reach a single meaning. According to him, the work merely establishes a field of meaning, and within this field, new relationships sprout between gesture and structure, history and perception. If there is a meaning, it only takes shape in the viewer’s mind over time. In short, the work resists reaching an end or a closure; it remains perpetually open.
Spanning over 80 works including painting, drawing, sculpture, and video, this multi-layered exhibition will be open to visitors until September 2026. Additionally, a limited-edition photogravure produced by Pendleton specifically for this exhibition is available for art enthusiasts.
- Venue: Langen Foundation · Raketenstation Hombroich 1, 41472 Neuss, Germany
Visiting Hours: Tuesday–Sunday and public holidays: 10:00–18:00
