Artist Bio

Marian Adams grew up in a Lincoln, Massachusetts. She attended Bennington College in Vermont from 2001 to 2003, receiving the Brockway Scholarship for academic/artistic merit both years. Marian graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA, in 2005 a studio art major with a minor in psychology. She has shown her work at The Hampden Gallery in Amherst, MA; The Jannotta Gallery in Northampton, MA; The Dew Art Gallery in New London, CT; and The Firehouse No. 13 Gallery in Providence, RI. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Marian’s paintings are heavily influenced by her studies of social psychology, particularly by research on conversational structures, pauses, and turn-taking in social interaction. This clinical side is mitigated by another strong influence, a nostalgia for her grandparents’ seemingly arcane way of life and especially their frequent formal garden parties. Through cropping and limiting details these paintings imitate a child’s eye view and gestalt perception of setting and interaction while exploring how much information about a situation we can actually glean from very limited cues such as dress, a hand gesture or the space between two figures. While categorically figurative, a strong emphasis on composition and line with negative spaces that assert themselves as objects these paintings strive to be seen as abstract works as well.

Contact:

marianadams@gmail.com