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AdriaPecoraStudio@gmail.com
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About the artist
Adria Pecora (b., 1965, Newark, NJ) is a visual artist who lives and works in the American Southwest. Grounded in form and language and aligned with architectural concerns, her reductive abstractions appear to extend the genealogy of minimalism. Yet, understood more perfectly, her work intends to subvert the masculine idiom grounded in materialism and randomness. Adria’s art is a feminine reflection, supplanting minimalist regard for mechanical modes of production (and reproduction) with discrete, artisanal, works nurtured into being by traditional techniques of painting and drawing. A dominant theme is order and collapse; the struggle for logos to prevail against chaos. Another motif is noise, represented as a pervasive, disquieting, condition of modernity.
Adria seldom exhibits. Her work was last shown at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Unapologetic: All Women, All Year, 2020. It has been featured at the Phoenix Art Museum (2011) and in a tribute to Sol LeWitt at MassMoCA (2010). Her art is represented in the collections of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Kala Art Institute, Berkeley; Santa Fe Art Institute; Skidmore College; and the Franklin Furnace artist book collection at MoMA/PS 1.
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Residencies and fellowships
Adria was a scholar-in-residence for a seminar led by Faisal Devji at the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University (2017). She attended masterclass held by Jorinde Voigt at Autocenter in Berlin (2013). Adria was an artist-in-residence at the Kala Art Institute, Berkeley (2014); Santa Fe Art Institute (2008); and Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams (1996). She received a fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (SFAI) and a grant ajudicated by Thomas Krens and Walter Hopps (CAC). She is the recipient of a grant from the Contemporary Forum at the Phoenix Art Museum (2010); and a traveling fellowship by School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1991).
Education
Adria’s interest in art was fostered during childhood by a friend's parents, Alfred Jensen and Regina Bogat. She studied art at Skidmore College and received the Bachelor of Science in 1987. There she culitvated appreciation of the New York School, studying with Jeff Elgin, David Miller, Robert Boyers, and Harry F. Gaugh; attending lectures by Dorothy Dehner, Dore Ashton, and Clement Greenberg and symposia held at the New York State Summer Writers Institute. Her work with Miller encouraged her painting process to adopt calligraphy, brokering focus on line and language. Encouraged by Dehner and Ashton to study in Paris, Adria spent a year abroad, attending the University of Paris and the painting atelier of Pierre Matthey de l'Etang at the National School of Fine Arts (ENSBA). Under the auspices of a Trustee Scholarship, Adria obtained the Master of Fine Arts in 1991 from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to painting and drawing, she studied photography with Colin Westerbeck and Joan Fontcuberta.
Early career
Adria taught art at Skidmore’s Summer6 program and at New York University and worked for a New York-based non-profit arts organization that supported at-risk youth with mentoring and scholarships. In a multifaceted administrative role at The Cooper Union, Adria organized exhibits and lectures and helped found fund-raising initiatives. She worked with Vito Acconci to realize a publication of his writings in recognition of his tenure as Robert Gwathmey Chair in Architecture and Art. As facillities director for the School of Art, she was among core consultants regarding design needs of the academic building at 41 Cooper Square. In 2005, Adria relocated from New York to Phoenix where she continues to dedicate herself to teaching, community service, and studio practice.
Adria seldom exhibits. Her work was last shown at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Unapologetic: All Women, All Year, 2020. It has been featured at the Phoenix Art Museum (2011) and in a tribute to Sol LeWitt at MassMoCA (2010). Her art is represented in the collections of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Kala Art Institute, Berkeley; Santa Fe Art Institute; Skidmore College; and the Franklin Furnace artist book collection at MoMA/PS 1.
More...
Residencies and fellowships
Adria was a scholar-in-residence for a seminar led by Faisal Devji at the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University (2017). She attended masterclass held by Jorinde Voigt at Autocenter in Berlin (2013). Adria was an artist-in-residence at the Kala Art Institute, Berkeley (2014); Santa Fe Art Institute (2008); and Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams (1996). She received a fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (SFAI) and a grant ajudicated by Thomas Krens and Walter Hopps (CAC). She is the recipient of a grant from the Contemporary Forum at the Phoenix Art Museum (2010); and a traveling fellowship by School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1991).
Education
Adria’s interest in art was fostered during childhood by a friend's parents, Alfred Jensen and Regina Bogat. She studied art at Skidmore College and received the Bachelor of Science in 1987. There she culitvated appreciation of the New York School, studying with Jeff Elgin, David Miller, Robert Boyers, and Harry F. Gaugh; attending lectures by Dorothy Dehner, Dore Ashton, and Clement Greenberg and symposia held at the New York State Summer Writers Institute. Her work with Miller encouraged her painting process to adopt calligraphy, brokering focus on line and language. Encouraged by Dehner and Ashton to study in Paris, Adria spent a year abroad, attending the University of Paris and the painting atelier of Pierre Matthey de l'Etang at the National School of Fine Arts (ENSBA). Under the auspices of a Trustee Scholarship, Adria obtained the Master of Fine Arts in 1991 from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to painting and drawing, she studied photography with Colin Westerbeck and Joan Fontcuberta.
Early career
Adria taught art at Skidmore’s Summer6 program and at New York University and worked for a New York-based non-profit arts organization that supported at-risk youth with mentoring and scholarships. In a multifaceted administrative role at The Cooper Union, Adria organized exhibits and lectures and helped found fund-raising initiatives. She worked with Vito Acconci to realize a publication of his writings in recognition of his tenure as Robert Gwathmey Chair in Architecture and Art. As facillities director for the School of Art, she was among core consultants regarding design needs of the academic building at 41 Cooper Square. In 2005, Adria relocated from New York to Phoenix where she continues to dedicate herself to teaching, community service, and studio practice.
Artist statement
My work speaks to personal experience while seeking dialogue with historical examples. I tend to organize it into distinct bodies governed by particular themes, materials, and processes.
I am interested in evoking experiences that are equally sensual and intellectual. I reflect on the human condition, the urban environment and the passage of time. Themes include entropy, loss, and obsolescence.
Current work incorporates motifs of entrenchment and evanescence through processes of mark-making, writing, engraving, erasure, and veiling.
My work speaks to personal experience while seeking dialogue with historical examples. I tend to organize it into distinct bodies governed by particular themes, materials, and processes.
I am interested in evoking experiences that are equally sensual and intellectual. I reflect on the human condition, the urban environment and the passage of time. Themes include entropy, loss, and obsolescence.
Current work incorporates motifs of entrenchment and evanescence through processes of mark-making, writing, engraving, erasure, and veiling.