Currently based in Chicago, Adrienne Weiss (b. 1983) is a multidisciplinary fiber artist and educator from Los Angeles, California whose practice is rooted in the understanding that corporeal awareness, research, ritual, dreams, activism, and art-making are interdependent phenomena that work together in service of personal and collective liberation. She holds a B.A. in Art History and American Studies from UC Berkeley (2005) and was a Bay Area public school educator for 15 years.
After many years as a self taught artist, Adrienne began her studio education by attending classes at Laney Community College in Oakland and studying weaving at the Richmond Art Center and at the private studio of Tricia Goldberg. She is now an M.F.A. candidate and recipient of the Pritzker Fellowship in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she is studying under the mentorship of Anne Wilson, Jade Yumang, and Krista Franklin.
Adrienne has shown work at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Arc Gallery, Woman Made Gallery, Instit für Alles Mögliche, among others, and in 2022 they had a solo exhibition at Applied Contemporary Craft Gallery in Oakland, CA, the gallery of their mentor, Mary Catherine Bassett. This past summer, Adrienne performed in an Ecosexual Walking Ritual in Düsseldorf, Germany, with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, whose teachings have echoed into the work she is doing in her final year of graduate school.
Adrienne’s work is a sensual and earth-facing exploration of the ecological realities of identity, embodiment, and direct experience. She works primarily with filamentous materials and weaving techniques. She is interested in the life of intersecting lines, the metaphors they conjure, and finding a balance between manipulating them and letting them move in their own mystical ways. Adrienne utilizes the visual language of dreams, visions, lineage, and symbols to create a woven world of talismanic art.
CV
EDUCATION
2025 MFA Candidate, Fiber and Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2009 Secondary Education Credential, San Francisco State University
2005 BA, Art History and American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
EXHIBITIONS
Solo
2022
small journey, slow life, Applied Contemporary Craft Gallery, Oakland, CA
Group & Juried
2024
Piel con Piel, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Experimental Portraiture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bio Constellation, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
and other objects, Instit für Alles Mögliche, Berlin, Germany
Connectivity, Woman Made Gallery, juried by Anke Loh, Chicago, IL
Pattern Recognition, ARC Gallery, juried by Casey Whittaker, Chicago, IL
Interplay, Dairy Barn Arts Center with Surface Design Association, juried by Annet Couwenberg, Athens, OH
Every Fiber of Our Being, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2023
Small Stuff, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Dopamining, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Now and Then Print Show, June Steingart Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Seen and Imagined, Gallery Route One, juried by Jeremy P.H. Morgan, Point Reyes, CA
2022
Spiritual Realms, June Steingart Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
Art in the Time of Corona, Volume 3, Dabart Co., Virtual Exhibit and Printed Exhibition Catalog
Uncommon Threads, Southern California Open Regional Exhibitions, Virtual Exhibit
PERFORMANCE & TALKS
2024 On the new moon the adders converge to make tongue stones and the lesbians assemble to suck mangos, Artist Talk, Fiber and Material Studies Lecture Series, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2024 Group Critique, group artist talk and discussion, Porsche Showroom, Chicago, IL
2024 The Park As Lover, an Ecosexual Walking Ritual Performance with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, props, costumes, and performance, Lantz’scher Skulpturenpark, Düsseldorf, Germany
2024 Feral Intelligence, Artist Talk, Fiber and Material Studies Lecture Series, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2017 Queer Art and Culture Wars: The 80’s and 90’s, Lecture in conjunction with the Cary Liebowitz exhibition “Museum Show”, Jewish Contemporary Museum, San Francisco, CA
RESEARCH & TEACHING
2023-24 Teaching Assistant for Advanced Woven Structures and Tapestry, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2017-2018 Research Assistant, North Coast Arts Integration Project, $500,000 arts education grant to integrate arts into core curriculum in Eureka and Trinity school districts, Humboldt State University Arcata, CA
2017 Curriculum Development and Workshop Facilitation in conjunction with Cary Liebowitz exhibition “Museum Show”, Jewish Contemporary Museum, San Francisco, CA
2009-2015 Teacher in Art History and Aesthetics, Oakland School of the Arts Oakland, CA
FELLOWSHIPS & SCHOLARSHIPS
2024-25 Pritzker Fellowship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2024 Study Trip Scholarship, Zeitgeist: Germany, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
CONTACT ME FOR COMMISSIONS, SHOWS, and WORKSHOPS
adrienneweiss@gmail.com