Biography & Statement
Biography
Adrianna Speer is a visual artist and educator living in Youngsville, Louisiana. She received her BFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana State University and her MFA in Studio Art from Louisiana Tech University. Her work has been exhibited nationally in venues including Site: Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY, Verum Ultimum Gallery in Portland, OR, Las Lagunas Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, and Jag Gallery in Key West, FL. She has attended national and international residency programs such as Taleamor Park in Indiana, Burren College of Art in Ireland, and Atelier de la Rose in France.
Recent awards, exhibitions, and publications include Art Show International's Finalist Award, Tubac Center of the Arts Merit Award, Indianapolis Art Center's Throughlines: Contemporary Drawing in IN, Gallery One's Undomesticated in WA, Dab Arts Co.'s QUARTERLY Winter 2023 Issue, and Gallerium's 2022 The Book of Arts: Extinction. She and her collaborator and partner, Jacob Newton, were awarded the 2024 Denis Diderot and Emerging Artist grants to attend the Château d'Orquevaux Artists & Writers Residency in France. Speer is a foundations and visual arts faculty member of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and South Louisiana Community College.
Statement
My paintings capture a moment in time rather than a particular scene or location. Each composition and subject are collations of memory, emotions, objects, and images I have collected from the internet and experienced personally. I use a mixed media approach and various application techniques that best describe the mood of each painting. Likewise, I curate imagery to portray characters and events. Each painting is a personal narrative wherein I explore color, texture, subject, and environment to evoke social commentary, sentimentality, mischievousness, and satire.
My process involves studying the idiosyncrasies tied to places, cultures, visual language, and politics to develop a commentary on a sense of place. I mix stereotypes with observations by using empirical studies, foraging and collecting items, and collating images from the internet, magazines, and personal photographs. My practice, including en plein air painting, mixed media painting, and collage in the studio, references the history of painting and engages in contemporary two-dimensional media discourse. My paintings are contemporary genre scenes referencing the beauty and complexities of navigating the mundane and sublime.