Adrienne Elise Tarver is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY with a practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, photography, textiles, and video. Her work addresses the complexity and invisibility of Black female identity including the history within domestic spaces, the fantasy of the tropical seductress, and the archetype of the all-knowing spiritual matriarch.

She has exhibited nationally and abroad, including solo shows at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut; the Academy Art Museum in Maryland; Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, Georgia; Dinner Gallery (formerly Victori+Mo) in New York; Ochi Projects in Los Angeles; Wave Hill in the Bronx, NY; BRIC Project Room in Brooklyn; and A-M Gallery in Sydney, Australia and two-person exhibitions at Hollis Taggart in New York; Wedge Curatorial in Toronto, Canada. She recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Boston University, and the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant. She has been commissioned for projects through the New York MTA, the Public Art Fund, Google, Art Aspen, and Pulse Art Fair and has been featured in online and print publications including the New York Times, Forbes, Brooklyn Magazine, ArtNews, ArtNet, Blouin ArtInfo, Whitewall Magazine, and Hyperallergic, among others. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA from Boston University.

Adrienne is represented in Los Angeles, CA and Sun Valley, ID by OCHI

Select Press:

Select Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions:
2024 (Upcoming) Public Art Fund - Bus Shelters, NYC, Chicago, Boston
2024 (Upcoming) Dinner Gallery, New York, NY
2024 (Upcoming) Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT
2023 Art Basel Miami - Solo Booth, Welancora Gallery
2023 To Learn the Dark - Ochi Aux, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Absorbing the Storm - Art Shack Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Manifesting Paradise - Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD
2021 The Sun, the Moon, & the Truth - Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2021 Underfoot - Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA
2021 Terra Incognita - Art-in-Buildings, New York, NY
2021 Armory Art Fair - 2-person Booth, Welancora Gallery
2020 History Reclaimed - Hollis Taggart, New York, NY (2 per)
2020 Escape - Victori + Mo, New York, NY
2020 Handle with Care - Wedge Curatorial, Toronto, Canada (2 per) 2019 Terra Incognita - happylucky no. 1, Brooklyn, NY
2019 In Fertile Shadows - Art Aspen, Aspen, CO
2019 Veil - Gallery 310, Marietta College, Marietta, OH
2018 Mirage - Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Origin: Fictions of Belonging - Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
2017 Secrets of Leaves - Victori+Mo, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Stories of Shadows - Victori+Mo, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Eavesdropping - BRIC Project Space, Brooklyn, NY
2013 In the Eaves - A-M Gallery - Sydney, Australia

Select Group Exhibitions:
2023 Spirits and Rocks: No Calm Seas - Carmina Galeria de Arte Contemporanea, Museu de Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal
2023 Buddy System III - Deanna Evans Projects, New York, NY
2023 In My Bag - Cierra Britton Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2023 Reminisce - Hollis Taggart, New York, NY
2022 Figure, Character, Sign - A Plus A Gallery, Venice, Italy
2022 Arrangements in Black - Phillips, New York, NY
2022 Our Blue Planet - Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, OR
2021 Expanded Field - Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2021 Group Chat - Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL
2021 On The Road: Chocolate Cities - Tone Gallery, Memphis, TN
2021 Stopgap - Massimo De Carlo Gallery, VSpace
2021 Becoming Buoyant - Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY 2020 Abstract is not a Style - Hollis Taggart, Southport, CT
2020 Interiors: hello from the living room - 1969 Gallery, NY, NY
2020 Art on the Grid - Public Art Fund, New York
2020 The Pursuit of Aesthetics - Morgan Lehman, New York, NY
2020 Inside Art - Children's Museum of Manhattan, New York, NY
2019 These Times are Racing - Arisohn + Murphy, Highline 9, NY
2019 Plastic Garden - Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, NY
2019 SPF 32 - Ulmer Arts, Brookyln, NY
2019 Foliaform - Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
2019 Human Nature - Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Pulse Projects & Collaborations - Pulse Art Fair, Miami, FL
2018 Art, Artists, and You - Children's Museum of Manhattan
2018 Winter Bloom - Camayuhs, Atlanta, GA
2018 Mirrored by Nature - Welancora Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Queer Tropics - Pelican Bomb at Transformer, Washington DC
2018 Indoor Outside - Spring Break Art Show - New York, NY
2018 Keepsake - Galleries Night, Bangkok, Thailand
2018 Walking as a way of knowing - Brooklyn, NY
2017 Queer Tropics - Pelican Bomb, New Orleans, LA
2017 Bronx Calling: The 4th AIM Biennial - Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY 2017 The Secret Life of Plants - Freight+Volume, New York, NY
2017 Plant Patterns - Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Trestle Benefit 'Artist of Honor' - Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Thresheld - Codify Art at Underdonk Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Parting and Together - Greenpoint Hill Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Duty Free - Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Summer in the City: The Brooklyn Show - Newburyport, MA
2016 Pulse/Trigger - Sine Gallery, Newark, NJ
2016 Plus One (+1) - Trestle Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY
2016 30 Under 30-ish, Victori+Mo, Brooklyn, NY
2016 In The Works, Unisex Salon, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Fresh Catch - Fastnet, Brooklyn, NY
2015 PRIME - Trestle Gallery Pop-up Space, Brooklyn, NY
2015 Posse - Private Residence - Aspen, CO
2015 Summer Salon - Trestle Gallery - Brooklyn, NY
2014 Convergence - 808 Gallery - Boston, MA
2014 Small Works - Trestle Gallery - Brooklyn, NY
2014 Art Now - NG Gallery - Sydney, Australia
2014 Randwick Prize Exhibition - Sydney, Australia
2013 Spring Exhibition - Art Est Gallery - Sydney, Australia
2012 Tribute to the Triangle - SNO Centre - Sydney, Australia
2011 Zodiac - Vermont Studio Center - Johnson, VT
2011 MFA Thesis Exhibition – Sullivan Galleries, SAIC – Chicago, IL

Awards, Commissions, and Residencies:

  • Distinguished Alumni Award, Boston University - 2023
  • Re_Act Contemporary, Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal - 2023
  • Artshack Ceramics Residency - 2023
  • Nancy Graves Foundation Grant - 2022
  • Silver Art Projects Residency, WTC, NYC - 2022-23
  • Google Artist-in-Residence Commission - 2020
  • MTA Arts & Design Mount Vernon Bridge Commission - 2019-21
  • Art Aspen Inaugural Artist Commission - 2019
  • Lower East Side Printshop, Keyholder Residency - 2017-18
  • Bronx Museum of the Arts: AIM Program - 2017
  • Publication Fellowship - Peripheral Vision Arts - 2016
  • Brooklyn Art Space Studio Residency - Jan to June 2015
  • Distinguished Artist Scholarship - Vyt Residency, Art Students League of New York - 2014
  • Pavlis Full Fellowship Award – Vermont Studio Center Residency - 2011
  • Kraus Family Foundation Award – World Studio AIGA Scholarship – 2010/11
  • Carol Gluckman Scholarship; SAIC – 2010/11
  • Caversham Centre for Artists and Writers - South Africa – 2008
  • School of Visual Arts Purchase Award, Boston University – 2007

Bibliography: