ADAM TURL CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

  • (2020-2026) PhD student/candidate, Media Arts, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

  • (2016) MFA, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art/Washington University, St. Louis, MO

  • (2014) BFA, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

WORK EXPERIENCE

  • (2020-2025) Graduate assistant, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL. Classes assisted: Media and Society (Sociology of Media), New Media Then (Theory Survey on Media History), History of African American Cinema, Werner Herzog, Social Class in Cinema (co-taught with Dr. Michael Phillips), History in Cinema (co-taught with Dr. Michael Phillips), Science Fiction and Television (co-taught with Dr. Michael Phillips), Critical Social Media.

  • (2017-2020) Instructor, University of Nevada - Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV. Classes taught: Drawing I, Drawing II, Life/Figure Drawing, 2D Design, 3D Design. Area committees: drawing area, graduate faculty

  • (2017) Instructor, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO. Classes taught: Painting I

  • (2016-2017) Art critic, West End Word, St. Louis, MO

  • (2014-2016) Teaching assistant, Sam Fox School/Washington University, St. Louis, MO. Classes assisted: 2D Design, Introduction to Drawing, Pictures for Communication, Painting Seminar: Place and Space

  • (2000-2009) Graphic designer and typesetter, Haymarket Books, Chicago, IL

  • (1997-1998) Gallery assistant, Beret International Gallery, Chicago, IL

GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND AWARDS

  • (2016) Cité International des Arts Residency and Fellowship (Paris, France)

  • (2014-2016) Sam Fox School of Art/Washington University Scholarship

  • (2015) Sam Fox School of Art/Washington University Travel Grant

  • (2013) Windgate Charitable Foundation Educational Opportunity Scholarship

  • (2013) Windgate Charitable Foundation Undergraduate Research Grant

“SOLO” EXHIBITIONS + PROJECTS

  • (2022-present) Born Again Labor Museum, Carbondale, IL (ongoing installation, social practice, community project, with Tish Turl)

  • (2018) The Barista Who Disappeared, Artspace 304, Carbondale, IL (June 2018)

  • (2018) Revolt of the Swivel Chairs, The Cube Gallery, Las Vegas, NV (March 2018)

  • (2015) Kick the Cat, Project 1612, Peoria, IL (October 2015)

  • (2015) 13 Baristas, Brett Wesley Gallery, Las Vegas, NV (September/October 2015)

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

  • (2014) New Deal Art Now: A Reframing of the Artifacts of Diversity, curated by Jessica Allee, SIU University Museum, Carbondale, IL

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • (2025) BALM @ Global Fusion, Global Fusion Conference, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, IL. (October 2025)

  • (2025) We Are Not Done Yet, Austin Irving Library, Chicago, IL (July-September 2025)

  • (2025) Narrative, Artspace 304, Carbondale, IL (April-May 2025)

  • (2020) The SWARM Show, collaborative installation with Anupam Roy, Tish Markley, and Laura Fair Schulz, to be installed at the Historical Materialism conference, University of Quebec, Montreal, QC (cancelled due to Covid 19, originally scheduled for May 2020)

  • (2020) The New Culture, curated by Olga Townsend, Nancy Good and Jorge Lara, Core Contemporary Gallery, Las Vegas, NV (cancelled due to Covid 19, originally scheduled March 2020)

  • (2017) Exposure 19: Jumbled Time, curated by Terry Shure, exhibit with Stan Chisholm and Lizzy Martinez, Gallery 210,  St. Louis, MO
    (August - December, 2017)

  • (2016) The Hard Times Art Show part II, curated by Adam Turl and Omnia Sol, with artists Holly McGraw, Omnia Sol, Anna Maria Tucker, Husni Ashiku, Jason Wonnell, Dollar Art House, St. Louis, MO (September 2016)

PUBLIC ART COLLECTIONS 

  • Lincoln Land Community College Writing Center, Springfield, IL: Benito Cereno (2014)

  • Parkview Collection at Indiana Tech Law School, Fort Wayne, IN: Plantation Painting 2 (2011) and Plantation Painting 3 (2011)

SELECTED ARTWORK PUBLISHED (PRINT)

  • (2025) The Certainty of Math #3, mixed media painting/collage, cover of Adam Turl’s Gothic Capitalism: Art Evicted from Heaven and Earth (Revol Press, 2025)

  • (2022) Arrhythm Nation (BALM), mixed-media painting/collage, cover of Alexander Billet’s Shake the City: Experiments in Space and Time,
    Music and Crisis     (1968 Press, 2022)

  • (2019) Ares Coffee Riot, mixed-media painting, in Marc Léger’s Vanguardia: Socially Engaged Art and Theory (Manchester Univ. Press, 2019)

  • (2017) I Heart Communist Space Pirates, painting, cover of December magazine volume 28.2 (Fall/Winter 2017)

  • (2017) Various works in Terry Suhre, Exposure 19: Jumbled Time, show catalog, interview roundtable with Adam Turl, Stan Chisholm and Lizzy Martinez, (Gallery 210, University of Missouri - St. Louis, 2017)

  • (2014) The Wind Has Erased the North Star, cover for Octavio Quintanilla, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014)

SELECTED WRITING (BOOKS)

  • (2025) Gothic Capitalism: Art Evicted from Heaven and Earth (Revol Press, 2025)

SELECTED WRITING (PRINT + ONLINE)

  • (2025) “Dead Bees on Hot Cement,” interview with author R. Faze, Locust Review 12 (Spring 2025), 19-23

  • (2023) “Commune vs. Cathedral vs. Bazaar,” Imago #2 (May 2023), 40-54

  • (2022) “Against Purgatory,” Tempestmag.org (February 23, 2022)

  • (2021) “Rest of Us,” review of Richard Hamilton’s poetry collection, Rest of Us, Locust Review #6 (October, 2021), 9-10

  • (2021) “Their Weird vs. Ours: Critical Irrealism and Fascist Occultism,” Imago #1 (August, 2021), 34-49

  • (2020) “The Urgency of Anti-Fascism,” Tempestmag.org (October 1, 2020)

  • (2020) “Against Hopepunk,” Locustreview.com (January 13, 2020)

  • (2020) “A Worker Reads Graphic Novels,” RedWedgeMagazine.com (January 2, 2020)

  • (2019) “On Howard Barry: Against Apocalyptic Time,” in Inertia, show catalog (Gallery 210, St. Louis: Univ. of Missouri, September, 2019)

  • (2019) “Broken Cogs in the Machine,” interview with artist Anupam Roy, RedWedgeMagazine.com (May 7, 2019)

  • (2019) “We Are All Outsider Artists Now,” RedWedgeMagazine.com (May 1, 2019)

  • (2018) “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” Red Wedge 6 (Fall 2018), 43-69

  • (2017) “Welcome to the Last Days,” review of China Miéville’s Last Days of New Paris, RedWedgeMagazine.com (January 30, 2017)

  • (2016) “All is Concealed,” review of Kelley Walker’s Direct Drive, West End Word (October 5, 2016)

  • (2015) “The Art Space as Epic Theater,” RedWedgeMagazine.com (April 26, 2015) 

  • (2016) “Against the Weak Avant-Garde,” RedWedgeMagazine.com (April 5, 2016) 

  • (2014) “Art (as Social Organism) vs. Gentrification,” interview with censored artist Amie Sell, RedWedgeMagazine.com (September 2, 2014)

  • (2014) “A People’s Art History of the United States,” interview with artist and author Nicolas Lampert on his book, A People’s Art History of the United States, RedWedgeMagazine.com (old site) (June 1, 2014)

SELECTED REVIEWS, PRESS + MEDIA COVERAGE 

  • (2025) Conrad Hamilton reviews “Gothic Capitalism: Art Evicted from Heaven and Earth,” Marx & Philosophy (December 27, 2025) 

  • (2025) Jordy Cummings responds to Cosmonaut review of Gothic Capitalism, “Dude, Where’s My Aura?” Locust Review (November 6, 2025)

  • (2025) Laura Fair-Schulz, “Review of Adam Turl’s Gothic Marxism,” Spectre Journal (October 31, 2025)

  • (2025) Patricia Manos, “Uneven and Confused Development in Left Art Criticism: A Review of Adam Turl’s Gothic Marxism,” Cosmonaut (September 24, 2025)

  • (2022) Frances Madeson, “At the Born Again Labor Museum, art is a weapon for the working-class,” The Real News Network (October 13, 2022)

  • (2022) Alice McIntyre, “Irrealism, Imagination, Intervention: The Locust Review in Their Words and Mine,” Cooper Point Journal (March 30, 2022), 12-13

  • (2022) Anna Casey (producer), “Museum examines workers’ rights through art,” 21st Show (February 7, 2022)

  • (2022) Kallie Cox, “Born Again Labor Museum offers free Communist Manifestos,” The Southern Illinoisan (February 1, 2022)

  • (2022) Makayla Holder, “Solidarity doesn’t mean everyone is the same: Locust Review showcases working-class stories,” The Southern Illinoisan (January 13, 2022)

  • (2021) Kallie Cox, “Born Again Labor Museum in Carbondale showcases stories, struggles of working class,” The Southern Illinoisan (December 27, 2021)

  • (2021) Sebastian Schuller, “Durch die Maschinen! Umfunktionierung des kapitalistischen Realismus als Strategie linker Erzählungen im 21. Jahrhundert,” Undercurrents 16 (2021).

  • (2020) “Tish Markley and Adam Turl Bring Their Art To Core Contemporary March 25th,” Vim Magazine (March 5, 2020)

  • (2018) Craig Wilson, “Adam Turl presents The Barista Who Disappeared,” Carbondale Nightlife (June 21, 2018), 8.

  • (2018) Leslie Ventura, “A flat dimension comes alive in The Revolt of the Swivel Chairs,” Las Vegas Weekly (March 23, 2018)

  • (2016) Liam Otten, “Red Mars and the Fictional Artist,” The Source (June 29, 2016)

  • (2015) Dawn-Michelle Baude, “Concrete Messages from Fictional Artists” Las Vegas Weekly (September 16, 2015)

  • (2015) Jenessa Kenway, “13 Baristas Pours It on Hot and Heavy,” Vegas Seven (Sept. 1, 2015)

  • (2014) Dylan Frost, “Area artists Turl, Ross, Lane Use Exhibit to Inspire Social Change,” Daily Egyptian (January 27, 2014)

  • (2013) Anthony Pickens, “Art Reception Expresses Area Social Conflicts,” Daily Egyptian (February 10, 2013)

  • (2013) Adam Testa, “Three Artists Present Evicted from Heaven and Earth,” Southern Illinoisan (February 6, 2013)

SELECTED INTERVIEWS + ROUNDTABLES

  • (2025) Bram E. Gieben interviews Adam Turl and Tish Turl, “Art, Activism, and Hope,” Strange Exiles Ep. 40 (August 14, 2025)

  • (2025) Cadell Last interviews Adam Turl, “Gothic Capitalism,” Philosophy Portal  (April 20, 2025)

  • (2025) Jason Myles interviews Adam Turl, “What is Gothic Capitalism?,” This is Revolution (April 8, 2025)

  • (2025) Mike Watson and Bram E. Gieben interview Adam Turl and Vladan Jeremić, “Can Art and Activism Save Us Now?,” Theorize and
    Be Damned     Ep. #10 (April 1, 2025)

  • (2025) Mike Watson and Bram E. Gieben interview Adam Turl and Terry Tapp, “What is to be done in the USA?,” Theorize and Be Damned Ep. #9 (February 19, 2025)

  • (2024) Wayne Heimbach interviews Adam Turl and Tish Turl, “Art. Politics. Carbondale.,” Facing Reality 4 Social Justice Ep. 25 (November 21, 2024)

  • (2022) Anupam Roy, Tish Turl, Adam Turl (roundtable), “Constructing Counter-Imaginaries,” Imago #2 (May 2023), 55-68

  • (2022) C. Derick Varn, “Adam Turl and Tish Turl on the Born Again Labor Museum, Radicalism, and Art,” Varn Vlog (December 2, 2022)

  • (2022) Nick Shillingford, “SNV Special Interview: Born Again Labor Museum (BALM) Now Open!” Socialist News and Views (April 28, 2022)

  • (2021) “Breaking the Spell of Capitalist Realism with Locust Review,” interview with Adam Ray Adkins, Acid Left (October, 2021)

  • (2017) Terry Suhre, roundtable with Adam Turl, Stan Chisholm and Lizzy Martinez in Exposure 19: Jumbled Time (Gallery 210, University of Missouri - St. Louis, 2017)

  • (2016) James Diaz, “Interview with Artist Adam Turl,” Anti-Heroin Chic (October 6, 2016)

  • (2016) Project 1612, “Post-1612 with Adam Turl” (interview), Post-1612 (May 5, 2016)

SELECTED LECTURES/PAPERS PRESENTED

  • (2025) “Gothic Capitalism: Art Evicted from Heaven and Earth,” book launch with Alexander Billet, Tish Turl, and Holly Lewis, Historical Materialism Montreal/The Great Transition, University of Quebec-Montreal, Montreal, QC (May 31, 2025)

  • (2022) “Figures of Brokenness” panel discussion (online) with Shivangi Mariam Raj, Pinak Banik and Adam Turl in conjunction with Anupam Roy’s exhibition, Broken Cogs in the Machine, Vadehra Art Gallery, Foundation for Contemporary Indian Art (July 28, 2022)

  • (2022) “The Poverty of Theory,” Historical Materialism Online/London (held online because of Covid 19) (November, 2022)

  • (2021) “Toward a Brechtian Cybernetics,” Historical Materialism Online/London (held online because of Covid 19) (November, 2021)

  • (2020) “Their Weird and Ours: Critical Irrealism vs. Fascist Occultism,” Historical Materialism Online/London (held online because of Covid 19) (November, 2020).

  • (2019) “Born Again Labor Museum,” Historical Materialism London, SOAS University of London, London, UK (November, 2019)

  • (2019) “Class, Outsider/Folk Art and the Weak Avant-Garde,” Historical Materialism New York, NY (April 13, 2019)

  • (2018) “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” Historical Materialism London, SOAS University of London, London, UK (November, 2018). 

  • (2018) “Gentrification and the Weak Avant-Garde,” Left Coast Forum, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Los Angeles, CA (August 26, 2018) 

  • (2018) “Evicted Art: Totality and Cognitive Mapping,” Historical Materialism Montreal, University of Quebec-Montreal, Montreal, QC (May 17, 2018)

  • (2017) “Fascist, Neoliberal and Socialist Aesthetic Leveling,” Historical Materialism London, SOAS University of London, London, UK
    (November 10, 2017)

  • (2016) “The Democratic Image: Aesthetic Leveling and Differentiated Totality,” Historical Materialism London, SOAS University of London, London, UK (Nov. 12, 2016)

  • (2016) “Against the Weak Avant-Garde,” Historical Materialism Toronto, York University, ON (May 15, 2016)

  • (2015) “For Art as Epic Theater,” artist lecture at Brett Wesley Gallery, Las Vegas, NV (October 8, 2015) and Project 1612, Peoria, IL (October 25, 2015).

  • (2014) “Angel of History,” as part of “The Many Deaths of Art,” panel discussion at the School of the Art Istitute of Chicago (SAIC), sponsored by SAIC Student Government and Platypus Affiliated Society, featuring Benji Gerdes, Ruslana Lichtzier and Adam Turl (December, 2014).

  • (2013) “Ernst Fischer and the Necessity of Art,” presented at the Socialism 2013 conference in Chicago (Haymarket Books, Center for Economic Research and Social Change) (June 27, 2013).

SELECTED OTHER POSITIONS

  • (2020-present) Co-host, Locust Radio podcast

  • (2019-present) Editor, Locust Review

  • (2019-present) Locust Arts and Letters Collective

  • (2019-2020) Chair, Agit-Prop Sub-Committee, Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America

  • (2018-2020) Art and design editor, RedWedgeMagazine.com and Red Wedge Magazine

  • (2016-2018) Co-chief-editor, RedWedgeMagazine.com and Red Wedge Magazine

  • (2013-2020) Editorial collective, RedWedgeMagazine.com and Red Wedge Magazine

  • (2004-2009) Chicago organizer, International Socialist Organization