Gallery 070 will present “Kenneth Adkins: New Work” with an opening from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, Aug. 1.

Adkins is a painter and sculptor whose haunting artwork is well-known in the Midwest.

During his career, Adkins has lived and worked between Omaha and Chicago. Last month, he moved to Providence, R.I., where he plans to set up a studio and break into the New York art scene.

His work is included in the Joslyn Art Museum’s permanent collection and in many private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

“This will be my West Coast debut, and I am grateful to do so at Gallery 070,” Adkins said. “I am looking forward to the ferry boat ride to Vashon Island.”

Adkins will be showing work created with a variety of media, including oils, house paint, acrylics, graphite, industrial grade wood glue, collage, coffee, fire treatments, tractor grease, horse blood, cow blood, pen and ink.

“The pictures are densely textured, heavily worked, cold and medicated, clean and concise, complex and technical — yet dirty and beat to exhaustion. Some of them are suffocating. A couple of them are rather lovely,” said Adkins about his show.

The artist is self taught, and his raw talent has earned him the label of “outsider artist” from some critics.

Adkins said after making a picture and showing it in public, it is no longer his responsibility.

“I don’t know if the term ‘outsider’ really applies to my work,” he said. “I don’t believe that anyone yet has been able to stick me with a proper label in regards to my work. I’ll buy them a drink when they do.”

Gallery 070 is open Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., or by appointment.

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