San Francisco–based Adam Eli Feibelman includes street art and raw data as two sources of inspiration for his incredibly detailed, hand-cut, multilayered stencil work, which immerses the viewer in complex urban landscapes, and in abstract fields of repeating and braided patterns. This social and geometric intricacy is reflected and amplified by his painstaking process, which is wholly improvised rather than based on predrawn outlines or compositional guides. Spread across four panels that subtly invoke allegories represented in stained glass, Wrath of a Mother Scorned speaks to the devastation caused by California’s increasingly apocalyptic seasonal wildfires. Fiercely radiating geometric patterns puncture layers of billowing smoke, while a great spiral sweeps up and curls to form the profile of a crashing wave or a hurricane viewed from Earth’s orbit. Feibelman’s elemental references to fire, water, and air speak to the vast scale of the planet’s climate systems while clearly linking them to our firsthand experience with a local—and immediate—threat.
Wrath of a Mother Scorned, 2021; black and white paper; courtesy of the artist
Adam Feibelman’s minutely detailed stencils and paper cutouts draw from his roots in graffiti and street art. His stylized compositions draw attention to often-overlooked aspects in the landscape. Raised in Albuquerque, he has been based in the Bay Area for more than two decades and earned a BFA in printmaking from California College of the Arts.