My work is not representative of our external; instead it is about our (Black) bodies, experiences, traumas & triumphs, healing, & identities from an internal perspective. Each piece is a part of the body, psyche, and soul turned inside out; the intimate recesses, fault lines, eroded sediment, gravity wells, multitudes, & universes we contain as we navigate a society that judges us by what can be seen with the eye.
— A’Driane Nieves
A’Driane Nieves was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1982.
A visual artist and writer, A’Driane Nieves is a U.S. Air Force veteran and the founder of an arts nonprofit and art magazine.Nieves is a self-taught painter of over a decade. At the urging of her therapist, she began using painting as a form of art therapy in 2011 during her recovery from postpartum depression and following her later diagnosis of bipolar disorder. This initial experimentation led to her using abstract expressionist painting as a way to overcome the impacts of childhood abuse, specifically emotional suppression. Influenced by Joan Mitchell, Cy Twombly, Bernice Bing, and early Black abstractionist painters ranging from Alma Thomas to Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Nieves’ paintings offer space for her own and others' quiet reflection and contemplation. She credits both the writing and visual components of her practice with helping her to find her voice and creating space for her to safely release long-buried emotions.
Her interdisciplinary practice focuses on the physical, epigenetic, psychological, and social-emotional impacts of trauma—inherited, historical or ancestral, personal —exposing how it shapes, alters, and redefines identity over the course of our lives. Her intuition-driven process draws heavily on memories, emotions, and experiences from both the past and present. Nieves often completes a painting in one sitting, relying on physical movement and music to channel her inner truths and rememberings.
Through abstract forms and composition and expressive mark-making, she gives visible shape to the internal biological and emotional processes of adaptation, recovery, healing, and transformation. Nieves' work allows her to carve out—and take up—space where the fullness of her humanity as a Black, queer, neurodivergent woman can be expressed without retribution. It is her hope that holding space in her work to express her fullest self encourages others to do the same.
In 2018, Nieves founded Tessera Arts Collective, a not-for-profit serving women and non-binary abstract artists of color. Nieves' exhibits internationally; selected exhibitions include Art Basel (Switzerland), Frieze (London), Art021 Shanghai; Le Consortium Museum (Dijon, France); Galerie Marguo (Paris, France), Lawrence Van Hagen Art,(Hong Kong, China), and BODE Projects (Berlin, Germany). Her work can be found in collections across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, including the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Dangxia Art Space, Beijing, Spurs Collection in San Antonio, USA, and the Rennie Museum, in Vancouver, Canada.
Born in San Antonio, Texas in 1982
United States Air Force OEF/OIF Veteran (2002–2006)
Founder & Executive Director, Tessera Arts Collective
Lives and works in Greater Philadelphia Area
Education
2011 |
Associate of Arts (AA), Camden County College |
Solo Exhibitions
2024 |
Le Consortium Museum, Dijon, France (upcoming) |
2024 | Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, USA (upcoming) |
2023 |
Galerie Marguo, ‘Synaptic Blooming’, hosted by Edit Projects, Seoul, South Korea |
2023 |
Galerie Marguo, 'i'm a Survivor' (online presentation), Paris, France |
2023 |
Galerie Marguo, 'Notes from the Laughing Barrel', Paris, France |
2022 |
Galerie Marguo, 'Notes from the Healing Circle' (online presentation), Paris, France |
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 |
Standing Pine, ‘Resonant Harmonies’, Nagoya, Japan (upcoming) |
2023 |
Galerie Marguo, ‘ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair’, Shanghai, China |
Various Small Fires, 'Frieze London 2023', London, UK |
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Galerie Marguo, ‘Home Run, Casa Marguo Inaugural Exhibition’, Menorca, Spain |
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Gillian Jason Gallery, 'Beyond Figuration: There and Now', London, UK |
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BODE Projects, ‘Color Coded’, Berlin, Germany |
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Smart Fine Arts Asia, ‘Women in Abstraction’, Hong Kong | |
Galerie Marguo, 'Art Paris 2023', Paris, France |
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2022 |
Galerie Marguo, 'ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair', Shanghai, China |
Simon Lee Gallery, 'Frieze London', London, England |
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Simon Lee Gallery, 'Art Basel', Basel, Switzerland |
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Le Consortium Museum, 'The Drawing Center Show', Dijon, France |
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2021 |
Galerie Marguo, 'ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair', Shanghai, China |
West Chelsea Contemporary, 'JVN x WCC On the Wall', Austin, USA |
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Susan Eley Fine Art, 'Three Abstract Artists', New York, USA |
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2020 |
Susan Eley Fine Art, 'AMERICANA Part II', New York, USA |
The Delaware Contemporary, 'From Chaos to Order, Making Our Way in the New World of COVID-19', Wilmington, USA |
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2019 | UICA, 'SPECTRA', Grand Rapids, USA |
Girlboss Rally, 'Perfecting the Journey', Los Angeles, USA | |
Goat Farm Arts Center, 'Her Ritual', Atlanta, USA | |
Blavity & 21 Ninety Summit 21, Atlanta, USA | |
2017 | Saatchi Art, 'The Other Art Fair', New York, USA |
Rare Device, 'WOMEN', San Francisco, USA | |
2016 | Dibden Center for the Arts, 'AWAKEN', Johnson State College, Johnson, USA |
2015 | Wild Goose Festival, 'Life as Art' exhibition & Q&A w/ Frank Schaeffer, Asheville, USA |
Murals & Public Art
2021 |
Philadelphia Flower Show, Philadelphia, USA |
2019 |
Streets Dept. Walls, Fashion District, Philadelphia, USA |
Collections
Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada X Museum, Beijing, China Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France Spurs Collection, San Antonio, USA Podo Museum, South Korea |
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Television & Film
2022 |
Netflix/World of Wonder Productions, 'Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness' |
2023 |
A'Driane Nieves, 'notes from the laughing barrel', Marguo Books (essay collection) |
2021 |
Abstractions Magazine ISSUE 001, Tessera Arts Collective |
2020 |
Schiffer Publishing, 'The Motherhood of Art', Marissa Huber & Heather Kirtland, interview and photos |
2019 |
Create Magazine, Issue XI |
2017 |
Ashley M. Jones, 'Magic City Gospel', Hub City Press, book cover |
2015 |
Ashlee Wells Jackson, 'The 4th Trimester Bodies Project', interview and photos |
Projects
2020/2021 |
Mural City Cellars Wine Label Collection, featured artist, wine labels |
2018 |
Founded Tessera Arts Collective, nonprofit serving Black, Latin, Indigenous, and Asian women and nonbinary abstract artists |
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A'Driane NievesEchoic Memory #1, 2023Acrylic, graphite, oil stick, sanguine dry lead, house paint on Belgian linen157.5 x 127 cm (62 x 50 in)
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A'Driane NievesExuberant Synaptogenesis #1, 2023Acrylic, house paint and sanguine dry lead on Belgian linen152.4 x 182.9 cm (60 x 72 in)
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A'Driane NievesExuberant Synaptogenesis #2, 2023Acrylic and house paint on Belgian linen182.9 x 152.4 cm (72 x 60 in)
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A'Driane NievesMy Window of Tolerance is Increasing, 2023Acrylic, house paint and graphite on Belgian linen152.4 x 152.4 cm (60 x 60 in)
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A'Driane NievesNeuroplasticity (Transformative Re-Wiring) #3, 2023Acrylic, pastel and pencil on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
Framed: 99 x 79 x 4 cm (39 x 31 1/8 x 1 5/8 in) -
A'Driane NievesNeuroplasticity (Transformative Re-Wiring) #4, 2023Acrylic, pastel and pencil on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
Framed: 99 x 79 x 4 cm (39 x 31 1/8 x 1 5/8 in) -
A'Driane NievesNeuroplasticity in 4K (Transformative Re-Wiring) #1, 2023Acrylic, pastel and pencil on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
Framed: 99 x 79 x 4 cm (39 x 31 1/8 x 1 5/8 in) -
A'Driane NievesNotes #3, 2023Acrylic on paper41.9 x 29.5 cm (16 1/2 x 11 5/8 in)
47.3 x 34.5 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesRegeneration (day 31), 2023Acrylic, sanguine dry lead, graphite, house paint on Belgian linen121.9 x 91.4 cm (48 x 36 in)
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A'Driane NievesA Somatic Feeling , 2022Acrylic, house paint on Belgian linen152.4 x 152.4 cm
60 x 60 in -
A'Driane NievesAn atypical black hole in a typical universe, 2022Acrylic, house paint on Belgian linenDiptych, each 182.9 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm (72 x 60 x 1 1/2 in)
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A'Driane NievesBetween Two Lungs (Somatic Breaths) , 2022Acrylic, house paint
Belgian linen
121.9 x 91.4 cm (48 x 36 in) -
A'Driane NievesBloodlines: Madonna and Child, Mother and Me, 2022Acrylic, oil stick, and graphite on paper41.9 x 29.2 cm (16 1/2 x 11 1/2 in)
51 x 38 x 3 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesCoagulation: When The Healing Factors Rush In, 2022Acrylic and house paint on Belgian linen203.2 x 177.8 cm (80 x 70 in)
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A'Driane NievesI Brought You with Me, 2022Acrylic, sanguine dry lead on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
86 x 66 x 3 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesI Made It To The Other Side, 2022Acrylic, sanguine dry lead on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
86 x 66 x 3 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesI’ve Given Up The Mud of The Past For Flowers of Healing Instead, 2022Acrylic and house paint on Belgian linen152.4 x 243.8 cm (60 x 96 in)
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A'Driane NievesMutable (Shapeshifting), 2022Acrylic on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
86 x 66 x 3 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesMy life has been a study in self revolution, 2022Acrylic, house paint, graphite, sanguine dry lead on Belgian linen177.8 x 127 x 3.8 cm
70 x 50 x 1 1/2 in -
A'Driane NievesNotes From the Healing Circle (I), 2022Acrylic, house paint on Belgian linen203,2 x 162,6 x 3.8 cm
80 x 64 x 1 1/2 in -
A'Driane NievesNow I'm Living (and still learning) On The Other Side, 2022Acrylic, oil stick and house paint on Belgian linen182.9 x 162.6 cm (72 x 64 in)
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A'Driane NievesResurrection: Rewired, 2022Oil stick on paper76.2 x 55.9 cm (30 x 22 in)
86 x 66 x 3 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesYou Wished Me Heaven But Gave Me Hell... Yet I Still Played in the Sunshine, 2022Acrylic, pastel and house paint on Belgian linen203.2 x 177.8 cm (80 x 70 in)
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A'Driane NievesBecoming...Requires Blood (I), 2021Acrylic on linen171.4 x 201.9 cm
67 1/2 x 79 1/2 in -
A'Driane NievesBloodline: Origins (I), 2021Acrylic, oil stick, house paint on linen203.2 x 177.8 cm
80 x 70 in -
A'Driane NievesBloodlines: Displacement & Belonging (II), 2021Acrylic and oil stick on Belgian linen203.2 x 162.6 cm
80 x 64 in -
A'Driane NievesChimera (1987), 2021Acrylic, spray paint, house paint, graphite on linen120,5 x 202 cm
52 x 88 in -
A'Driane NievesDNA (Expressions), 2021Acrylic, oil stick, graphite on paper67.3 x 48.3 cm (26 1/2 x 19 in)
76 x 57 x 3 cm (framed) -
A'Driane NievesHealing’s Sharper Edges, 2021Acrylic, house paint on canvas76.2 x 50.8 cm
30 x 20 in -
A'Driane NievesMother Wound / Separation / Abandonment, 2021Acrylic and acrylic paint skin on canvas152.4 x 152.4 cm
60 x 60 in -
A'Driane NievesMy Body is a Hollow Receptacle of Memories, 2021Acrylic on canvas152.4 x 152.4 cm
60 x 60 in -
A'Driane NievesNo. 20, 2021Graphite, oil stick, acrylic, and house paint on linen203.2 x 177.8 cm
80 x 70 in -
A'Driane NievesShadow Work, 2021Acrylic on canvas152.4 x 152.4 cm
60 x 60 in -
A'Driane NievesWar Horse No. 21, 2021Acrylic on canvas101.6 x 101.6 cm
40 x 40 in
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A'Driane Nieves: Notes From The Laughing Barrel
Paris Exhibition Artist Film 18 Jan 2023Galerie Marguo is thrilled to present Notes From The Laughing Barrel, a suite of new works by the American artist A’Driane Nieves. On view from 20 January to 18 February 2023, this exhibition marks the artist’s first exhibition in Europe. A'Driane Nieves explains her work and her approach in these terms, 'While the existence of laughing barrels and their use is stored somewhere between historical fact and Southern mythology, the imagery of an enslaved African or free Black person during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras having to use a...Read more -
A'Driane Nieves: Notes From The Laughing Barrel
Paris Exhibition Teaser 11 Jan 2023 -
Galerie Marguo @ ART021 Shanghai 2021
Art Fair 10 Nov 2021Galerie Marguo is pleased to be participating in ART021, with a presentation of nine contemporary international artists working in painting and photography. Spanning a variety of approaches from abstraction to figuration, each offer nuanced ways of looking, interpreting, and representing the world through highly subjective formal and political lenses, cultivated from all corners of the earth. The works gathered here are each in their own way concerned with representing the often invisible yet palpable forces that shape our lives, as well as that which is often hidden in plain sight....Read more
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Rennie Museum Announces Acquisition of A'Driane Nieves' Artwork
16 Sep 2022Galerie Marguo is pleased to announce that the painting An atypical black hole in a typical universe has been acquired by the Rennie Museum ,...Read more -
#MarguoSummer and Looking Ahead to the Fall
Gallery Closed for Summer Holiday until 15 August 2022 27 Jul 2022Galerie Marguo is temporarily closed for the summer holiday till 15 August. Come back to the gallery starting on 16 August to catch the last...Read more -
Marguo Artists Included in The Drawing Centre Show at Le Consortium, Dijon
2 Jul 2022Galerie Marguo is delighted to announce that three artists from its program, A’Driane Nieves , Ziping Wang , Semine Yang , are included in...Read more
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Meer: A'driane Nieves. Self-evident truths
27 Feb — 6 Apr 2024 at Various Small Fires in Dallas, United StatesMeer Magazine, 27 Feb 2024 -
Cultured: Here's What Inspired Self-Taught Artist A’Driane Nieves In the Creation of Her First Solo Show
Jonathan Griffin, Cultured Magazine, 27 Feb 2024 -
W Magazine: Painting Outside the Lines
Contemporary female artists are approaching abstraction with an eye toward the inner worldJulia Halperin, W Magazine, 13 Dec 2023 -
Culture Type: Latest News in Black Art: Photographer Roland Freeman Died, Nigeria Named New Culture Minister, A’Driane N
Victoria L. Valentine, Culture Type , 25 Aug 2023 -
Shondaland: A’Driane Nieves Embraces the Abstract
VIVIAN MANNING-SCHAFFEL, Shondaland, 29 Jun 2023 -
LVH In Conversation With A'Driane Nieves
Ayse Erman, LVHART -
Streets Dept. Walls: Marrying My Philly & Southwestern Roots For Fashion District Philadelphia
A'Driane Nieves, Medium -
Painting helped this self-taught artist find balance with bipolar disorder. Now, she's helping others
Bethany Hines, CNN, 3 Jun 2021 -
How Did You Become Such An Amazing Artist? with A’Driane Nieves
Jonathan Van Ness, Getting Curious with JVN, 3 Mar 2021 -
Curator Close-up, A’Driane Nieves of Tessera Arts Collective
Wit López, The Artblog, 19 Mar 2020 -
New Fishtown gallery spotlights women artists of color
Tiffany Lashai Curtis, The Inquirer, 4 Dec 2018 -
Interview with artist A'Driane Nieves
KC, Rare Device Blog, 1 May 2017 -
Bono Just Became Glamour's First Man of the Year
Christiane Amanpour, Glamour Magazine, 31 Oct 2016