Phoebe Adams (born 1953) is an American painter, sculptor, and educator. She is known for her

biomorphic Biomorphism models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms. Taken to its extreme it attempts to force naturally occurring shapes onto functional devices. History Within the c ...

artwork. Adams was active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

for a decade from 1985 to 1995, and has lived in Maine and New Mexico.

Early life and education

Phoebe Adams was born in 1953 in Greenwich, Connecticut. She studied art at

Philadelphia College of Art Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

(BFA 1976; now the University of the Arts),

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 t ...

(in 1977), and

University at Albany, SUNY The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

(MFA 1978).

Career

Adams' sculptures and paintings are biomorphic. A lot of her sculpture work is made in bronze, with colors expressed through the

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze and similar metals and metal alloys ( tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes) or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen produce ...

. Adams' abstract paintings are inspired on her walks in nature. From 1985 until 1995, her paintings and sculptures were regularly exhibited in New York City. From 1989 until 1990, Adams was the 3-D department chair and an assistant professor at

Moore College of Art and Design Moore College of Art & Design is a private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its undergraduate programs are available only for female students, but its other educational programs, including graduate programs, are co-educational. Histo ...

in Philadelphia. From 1991 until 2013, she was an associate professor of sculpture at

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (Kutztown University or KU) is a public university in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Highe ...

. In 1998, Adams was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts grant by the

Pew Center for Arts & Heritage The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a nonprofit grantmaking organization and knowledge-sharing hub for arts and culture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US established in 2005. In 2008, Paula Marincola was named the first executive director. Th ...

. In 2020 and 2021, Adams was a MacDowell Fellow in Visual Arts at the artists' residency program. Her work is part of museum collections including the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

, the

Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, ...

, the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown ...

, and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and Private university, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Phoebe 1953 births Living people 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists Artists from Greenwich, Connecticut Artists from Maine Artists from New Mexico Artists from New York City Kutztown University of Pennsylvania faculty Moore College of Art and Design faculty Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni University at Albany, SUNY alumni University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni MacDowell Colony fellows