Statement

I am a Boston based artist who creates large-scale, sculptural installations to evoke the complex beauty and emotional connections – joy, wonder, and solace - that humans find in abstracted natural forms. The poetic transcendence of the everyday is my ultimate goal. 

Often suspended well above the viewer's head, these installations create a sense of the space between the earth and the sky, and of sunlight broken by clouds casting shadows across a landscape. Large organic shapes cut from light weight material, spiraling and bending dancer-like, create a dynamic experience. The sculptures, in ever-changing relationship, suggest the experience of time passing with shifts of light and color. 

I work with gravity: when tied to specific points with wire, the lightweight plastic material takes on voluptuous forms in space. Each time a piece is hung, it conforms to a new space. The ephemeral nature of a mutable sculpture lends an immediacy and adaptability to the work, speaking to our transient lives and life.

Artist

Arch has been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sanskriti Foundation in Delhi, and in Auvillar, France. Her work is included in many private and public collections including the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Danforth Art Museum, Simmons University, Fidelity Corporation, the Boston Public Library and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

In 2019 her work was featured at the Fitchburg Art Museum, curated by Lisa Crossman. In 2020, Arch presented Interference, an installation designed for the Cahoon Museum of American Art. Arch was commissioned by Chief Curator Mara Williams at the Brattleboro Art Museum in Vermont to create On Reflection. Recent exhibitions include Better Angels at Evanston Art Center and Sirens and Sentinels at Boston Sculptors Gallery. She was recently commissioned by Google for a site specific room installation.

Arch is a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery.

Educator

Arch has taught extensively in Boston area colleges including Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Endicott College, and Monserrat College of Art. She is a respected teacher at Concord Art and Weston Art and Innovation Center, among many others. Arch currently has a strong following of online students who enjoy her approach to non-respresentational art making.

Arts Advocate

Adria is an arts organizer and public art activist, and she has been integral in the creation of a vibrant arts and culture commission in her hometown of Arlington, Massachusetts. Some of the projects that she instigated include the Utility Box Mural project, the Youth Banner Initiative funded by the family of Gracie James, and Chairful Where You Sit, an annual fundraiser featuring re-imagined orphan chairs.

Video and Podcast

Watch Adria Arch: Women in Installation Art, presented by the Weston Arts and Innovation Center

Listen: Artist and Place podcast, Adria Arch: An Art of Delight and Playful Discovery