kelli rae adams
BGC Fields of the Future Fellow
Artist

In this talk, artist and BGC fellow kelli rae adams will give a survey of her creative practice over the past decade, highlighting a series of projects which trace her ongoing investigations into themes of labor, value, debt, and currency. She will then introduce her current research into ancient clay objects used for remuneration and exchange, discussing how she envisions reimagining these forms to visualize present-day economic concerns such as wealth inequality, wage disparity, and financial inclusion.

kelli rae adams utilizes clay in various states of permanency—often alongside additional materials—to create installation-based works that examine prevailing economic systems and probe our existing relationships to labor, currency, and value. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design (Washington, DC), the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University (Providence, RI), and the Museum of International Ceramic Art (Denmark). She has been a fellow at the Halcyon Arts Lab (Washington, DC) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Amherst, VA) and artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO), Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM), the Studios at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), and Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center (Denmark), among others. In 2019, she served as arts envoy to Honduras for the US Department of State. Her study of ceramics began in Japan, where she apprenticed over a period of five years with Tetsuro Hatabe, a master potter in the Karatsu tradition. adams holds an MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in visual arts and Spanish from Duke University.

Tuesday, April 4, 12:15 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Lunch will be served starting at noon. Registration required.