Adam Pendleton completed the Artspace Independent Study Program in Pietrasanta, Italy, in 2002. Pendleton’s solo exhibitions include Adam Pendleton: Selected Works, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago (2014); Adam Pendleton: I’ll Be Your, Pace Gallery, London (2012); Adam Pendleton: New Black Dada Paintings, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon (2012); Adam Pendleton: The Women, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago (2011); ELTDK Los Angeles, Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA (2010); Adam Pendleton, Haunch of Venison, Berlin (2009); Adam Pendleton: Rendered in Black, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (2008); Adam Pendleton: Gorilla, My Love, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago (2005); and Adam Pendleton: Being Here, Wallspace, New York (2004).

His group exhibitions include Civil Rights, Void, Derry, Ireland (2014); Love Story – The Anne and Wolfgang Titze Collection, Winter Palace and 21er Haus, Belvedere, Vienna (2014); After Hours 2: Murals on the Bowery, Art Production Fund, in partnership with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2013); Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Intense Proximity, Art as Network, La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Fifth Contour Biennial, Mechelen, Belgium (2011); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (2010); Desire, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2010); Afro-Modernism: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool, England (2010); The Prompt, Performa 09, White Slab Palace, New York (2009); The Generational: Younger than Jesus, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009); Matter of Fact, Manifesta 7, Manifattura Tabacchi, Roverto, Italy (2008); After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy, High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2008); Object: The Undeniable Success of Operations, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008); Hey Hey Glossolalia: The Eroticism of Pedagogy, Creative Time, Judson Memorial Church, New York (2008); Resistance Is . . . , Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007); Frequency, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2006); Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art since the 1970s, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2005); and Optimo: Manifestations of Optimism in Contemporary Art, Marfa Ballroom, Texas (2004).