Adela Akers

Born 1933, Santiago de Compostela, Spain resides in the US

Adela Akers is a Spanish-born textile and fiber artist residing in the United States whose career, which began in the 1950s, has spanned the entire history of modern fiber art. She is represented in numerous public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Akers has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and was an artist-in- residence at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2014. Akers was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2008.

Artist Statement:
“Before attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Cranbrook Academy
of Art, I completed studies to be a pharmacist. My background in science has strongly influenced my artwork. The choice of materials and process emerges from that experience. There is a mathematical discipline in the way the work is constructed. This mathematical sequence is in strong contrast to the organic process (handweaving) and materials (linen and horsehair) that bring the work to fruition.
Even when I don’t know the outcome, it is the transformation of the materials by
the repetitive hand manipulation that leads me to the final expression. It is always a discovery when reaching the end.
All the steps are important and contribute to the final work. Narrow strips are woven sequentially; horsehair is inserted at intervals. When the metal foil is used, it is cut in narrow bands to fit at intervals.
It is my intention to externalize both process and materials and their interaction in order to create a richer surface, which is the focus of the work. In the search for answers or solutions, the questions get better and the possibility of a miracle is ever present.
The completion of each piece raises questions that form the fabric of work to come.”

Adela Akers, Golden Red, 2017, linen, horsehair and metal foil, 30 x 21". Courtesy of browngrotta arts

Adela Akers, Silver Blue, 2017, linen, horsehair and metal foil, 30 x 21". Courtesy of browngrotta arts

Artist image courtesy of Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Artwork images courtesy of browngrotta arts.