Brooklyn-based Adrienne Elisa Tarver practices painting, sculpture, installation, photography, textiles, and video to address the complexity and invisibility of Black female identity including the history within domestic spaces, the fantasy of the tropical seductress, and the archetype of the all-knowing spiritual matriarch.
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits “Between here and there,” 2024 Photo: Mel Taking, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, Boston.
She has exhibited nationally and abroad, including solo shows at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut; the Academy Art Museum in Maryland; Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, Georgia; Dinner Gallery (formerly Victori+Mo) in New York; Ochi Projects in Los Angeles; Wave Hill in the Bronx, NY; BRIC Project Room in Brooklyn; and A-M Gallery in Sydney, Australia and two-person exhibitions at Hollis Taggart in New York; Wedge Curatorial in Toronto, Canada. She recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Boston University, and the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant.
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits “With expectation,” 2024 Photo: Mel Taking, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, Boston.
She has been commissioned for projects through the New York MTA, the Public Art Fund, Google, Art Aspen, and Pulse Art Fair and has been featured in online and print publications including the New York Times, Forbes, Brooklyn Magazine, ArtNews, ArtNet, Blouin ArtInfo, Whitewall Magazine, and Hyperallergic, among others. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA from Boston University.
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits “In the face of the sun,” 2024 Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
About the Art
Each of the six paintings’ subjects is seated in an intimate environment and each is inspired by the artist’s personal archive as well as media archives–especially that of Ebony Magazine, a cornerstone of culture, news, and entertainment. Tarver’s imagery positions the act of sitting as a reclamation of rest and power.
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits “Dark star,” 2024 Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
The work nods to the ways activists have used sitting in public space as a tool to shift the socio-political dynamic in the United States. For decades, sit-ins have been used by Black activists to enact direct change within legal systems that aimed to confine and erase Black presence. The seated subjects in Tarver’s paintings quietly confront passengers at bus shelters, which in turn offer moments of physical respite and restful contemplation.
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits is curated by Jenée-Daria Strand, Assistant Curator at Public Art Fund
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits “A Long Way,” 2024 Photo: Nicholas Knight, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
OOH as a Medium for Public Art
The Public Art Fund continues to exhibit artists on JCDecaux’s vast North American street furniture network as it can intercept diverse urban residents where they live and spend their time, effectively making the experience of artistic exposure one that is accessible to all.
Learn more about the Public Art Fund and their current exhibition here.
Adrienne Elise Tarver: She who sits “At the Cookout (Mom),” 2024 Photo: David Sampson, Courtesy of Public Art Fund, Chicago.