Alice Adams
Alice Adams (b. November 16, 1930, New York) is an American artist known for her sculpture and site-specific land art in the 1970s and for her major public art projects in transit systems, airports, university campuses and other urban sites throughout the United States since 1986. Her earlier work in tapestry and woven forms was important in the American fiber art movement. Adams' sculptures after 1968 explored the architectural elements of the wall, the corner, the column and the vault. Continuing the use of flexible materials, she painted layers of latex on the old plaster walls of her studio, stripped them off, and then mounted the casts on two-by-four frameworks leaning against the wall. She saw her practice as a way of drawing people into spaces that are initially familiar but that later appear new. She used familiar building materials like wood lath, covering or partially covering frameworks to create free-standing partitions, columns and vaults.
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Press
2025
Why artist Alice Adams — aged 94 — is finally getting her moment by Glenn Adamson for The Financial Times.
"Abstract Erotic," The Courtauld Gallery by Glenn Adamson for ArtForum.
What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in June by Will Heinrich for the New York Times.
2024
Alice Adams, Architectural Impulses in Sculpture by William Corwin for The Brooklyn Rail.
2023
Alice Adams by Chris Murtha for ArtForum.
1979
The Abstract Realism of Alice Adams by Lucy R. Lippard for Art in America.



