Adria Arch, born in 1952 in Niagara Falls, New York, creates paintings, sculptures, and installations that explore the complex beauty and emotional connections she finds in abstracted form. Her work often draws from a vocabulary of shapes, including ladders, grids, and spirals. Through these forms, she investigates drawing, shape, and color while referencing glimpsed traffic signs, gardens, street art, buildings, and fashion.  Known first as a painter, in 2018 she shifted her practice into three dimensions, cutting shapes from large sheets of lightweight polystyrene and suspending them from architecture. Gravity became an essential collaborator, determining how the forms swooped and twisted in space. Light and shadow added further complexity, amplifying the interplay between color and negative space.

Over the past eight years, her transition from painting to sculpture has been fueled by learning about new materials and technologies that support her evolving practice. Arch is now exploring ways to deepen the expressive potential of her work and foster greater engagement with viewers.