Yura Adams is a painter and installation artist whose work interprets her personal research on weather, patterns of geology, biological growth, and the transparency of nature.
Most recently, her work was selected for the Drawing Center Viewing Program, and was exhibited at Olympia Gallery, New York City, the Albany Airport Gallery, Albany, New York, Woodstock Art Association and Museum and Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Gallery in Woodstock, New York and Artspace, New Haven, Connecticut. Adams has been exhibited as a visual and performance artist throughout the United States in venues such as The New Museum in New York, Experimental Intermedia, Franklin Furnace, New Music America, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut, and John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York.
She has received grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, New York Decentralization, and was a regional representative in the New York Foundation of the Arts, Mark program. She has taught painting in many schools including Rhode Island School of Design and was curator/director of contemporary art for the Foundation Gallery at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, New York. Last fall, she curated and exhibited in a large, four-person show at Opalka Gallery at Russell-Sage College, Albany and currently lives and works in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Most recently, her work was selected for the Drawing Center Viewing Program, and was exhibited at Olympia Gallery, New York City, the Albany Airport Gallery, Albany, New York, Woodstock Art Association and Museum and Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Gallery in Woodstock, New York and Artspace, New Haven, Connecticut. Adams has been exhibited as a visual and performance artist throughout the United States in venues such as The New Museum in New York, Experimental Intermedia, Franklin Furnace, New Music America, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut, and John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York.
She has received grants from Pollock-Krasner Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, New York Decentralization, and was a regional representative in the New York Foundation of the Arts, Mark program. She has taught painting in many schools including Rhode Island School of Design and was curator/director of contemporary art for the Foundation Gallery at Columbia-Greene Community College in Hudson, New York. Last fall, she curated and exhibited in a large, four-person show at Opalka Gallery at Russell-Sage College, Albany and currently lives and works in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Published on May 19th, 2022. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you currently excited about in your art practice?
This was an exciting year of material experimentation in my studio, working with fabric adhered to mylar pursuing its translucent qualities and recently marble and wool. I have made a lot of discoveries that have pushed my work; into places that test me and demand a specific kind of working which requires that I suspend judgment and flick off old attitudes. Adjacent to my studio door is a pile of marble scraps from my partner’s business. There I scavenge marble cast-offs that I develop into free-standing pieces some would call sculpture but are such an extension of my paintings that I call them “Morning Announcements”. And wool! A friend taught me to felt and gave me a bunch of roving and I am drawing with it in my paintings. The way the new materials convey weight and light astonish, intrigue, and thrill me. The progress has made it an exciting year.
What were some of the challenges you faced last year as an artist? Was your work/ art practice affected by the pandemic this year, if so how?
The pandemic is a huge emotional blanket that covers us all; it is a challenge to be a positive human in the face of the uncertainty of life; all of us must find a way to make a life. My main tool is to go to the studio to work where everlasting connection to the unconscious mostly removes the concerns of humanity. The discipline of work takes me there, every day. The studio! My woman cave and salvation.
Studio life is not perfect. Challenges of the body, soul and mind interfere. Body needs food, needs bathroom, needs energy, needs nap, and so on. The emotions make a call; why haven’t I heard from my daughter, how is my friend doing, need to go see the exhibition of so-and-so, etc. A thousand cuts distract, but desire to produce wins out with the mathematical advantage of time spent.
What does a typical day in the studio (or wherever you're making work) look like for you these days? What time of day are you at your studio, what are your studio must haves (ex: music, coffee, tools, etc), and what does your creative space look like?
Early mornings are computer research, application, and reaching-out time at my desk in the house. Not studio work, but essential to my practice. I walk to the studio around 9:30-10am, look around at what I glued or painted the night before, make a daily drawing, or look at a file in Photoshop, alter it for possibilities and print it out and putter about. Around 1pm, walk back to the house for lunch, then back to the studio. Afternoons are a free-for-all, my bulk time; painting, gluing, felting, researching, but have no more than two projects working at a time, I can’t focus on more and usually it is work work work on the main project of the moment. My motto is “anything can happen” and I pursue this until 5:30-6:30, or whenever the darkness after sunset starts to press in.
Essential tools outside of the supplies that go into the art: highly edited music flow, computer, camera, printer, great lighting, rubber mats and padded shoes to protect my feet from the cement floor, and tea.
What resources for artists have you found helpful that may be helpful for other artists?
The best resource for artists is community. We all know it, and we all need be encouraged to develop it. Studio visits, gallery visits, lunches etc. alleviate existential isolation of the artist and keep the pipes open and flowing.
Another resource is energy and artists must curate their lifestyle to maintain it. Get enough sleep, exercise, eat good food and direct energy into involvement. Don’t let up. Edit out the trash that flows at us constantly and discover resources that are on point.
What in your art career are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? Do you have any specific goals or projects in mind?
My goal is to have many studio visits this year and to develop work for my one person show of paintings scheduled for October 2022 in New York City at Olympia. I will exhibit my paintings and have on sale a “Get your Wonder Here” booklet-zine for sale at the gallery and clothing I make from my printed fabric. Next up in the studio: one last, giant painting entirely made of felted drawing material. After that, two series to be produced: (1) more of the Morning Announcements (small free-standing works) and (2) line of 11x 14 paintings using the translucent materials I am currently working with. After that, true love, fame, fortune, and weight loss will surely ensue.
What are you currently excited about in your art practice?
This was an exciting year of material experimentation in my studio, working with fabric adhered to mylar pursuing its translucent qualities and recently marble and wool. I have made a lot of discoveries that have pushed my work; into places that test me and demand a specific kind of working which requires that I suspend judgment and flick off old attitudes. Adjacent to my studio door is a pile of marble scraps from my partner’s business. There I scavenge marble cast-offs that I develop into free-standing pieces some would call sculpture but are such an extension of my paintings that I call them “Morning Announcements”. And wool! A friend taught me to felt and gave me a bunch of roving and I am drawing with it in my paintings. The way the new materials convey weight and light astonish, intrigue, and thrill me. The progress has made it an exciting year.
What were some of the challenges you faced last year as an artist? Was your work/ art practice affected by the pandemic this year, if so how?
The pandemic is a huge emotional blanket that covers us all; it is a challenge to be a positive human in the face of the uncertainty of life; all of us must find a way to make a life. My main tool is to go to the studio to work where everlasting connection to the unconscious mostly removes the concerns of humanity. The discipline of work takes me there, every day. The studio! My woman cave and salvation.
Studio life is not perfect. Challenges of the body, soul and mind interfere. Body needs food, needs bathroom, needs energy, needs nap, and so on. The emotions make a call; why haven’t I heard from my daughter, how is my friend doing, need to go see the exhibition of so-and-so, etc. A thousand cuts distract, but desire to produce wins out with the mathematical advantage of time spent.
What does a typical day in the studio (or wherever you're making work) look like for you these days? What time of day are you at your studio, what are your studio must haves (ex: music, coffee, tools, etc), and what does your creative space look like?
Early mornings are computer research, application, and reaching-out time at my desk in the house. Not studio work, but essential to my practice. I walk to the studio around 9:30-10am, look around at what I glued or painted the night before, make a daily drawing, or look at a file in Photoshop, alter it for possibilities and print it out and putter about. Around 1pm, walk back to the house for lunch, then back to the studio. Afternoons are a free-for-all, my bulk time; painting, gluing, felting, researching, but have no more than two projects working at a time, I can’t focus on more and usually it is work work work on the main project of the moment. My motto is “anything can happen” and I pursue this until 5:30-6:30, or whenever the darkness after sunset starts to press in.
Essential tools outside of the supplies that go into the art: highly edited music flow, computer, camera, printer, great lighting, rubber mats and padded shoes to protect my feet from the cement floor, and tea.
What resources for artists have you found helpful that may be helpful for other artists?
The best resource for artists is community. We all know it, and we all need be encouraged to develop it. Studio visits, gallery visits, lunches etc. alleviate existential isolation of the artist and keep the pipes open and flowing.
Another resource is energy and artists must curate their lifestyle to maintain it. Get enough sleep, exercise, eat good food and direct energy into involvement. Don’t let up. Edit out the trash that flows at us constantly and discover resources that are on point.
What in your art career are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? Do you have any specific goals or projects in mind?
My goal is to have many studio visits this year and to develop work for my one person show of paintings scheduled for October 2022 in New York City at Olympia. I will exhibit my paintings and have on sale a “Get your Wonder Here” booklet-zine for sale at the gallery and clothing I make from my printed fabric. Next up in the studio: one last, giant painting entirely made of felted drawing material. After that, two series to be produced: (1) more of the Morning Announcements (small free-standing works) and (2) line of 11x 14 paintings using the translucent materials I am currently working with. After that, true love, fame, fortune, and weight loss will surely ensue.
Find Yura Adams on Instagram