a’driane nieves (b. 1982, San Antonio, Texas) is a visual artist and writer whose interdisciplinary practice explores the interior landscapes of the self. A self-taught painter for over a decade, she began painting in 2011 as a form of art therapy during recovery from postpartum depression and a subsequent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. What began as therapeutic experimentation gradually became a way to confront the emotional suppression rooted in her early experiences of abuse.

Influenced by Joan Mitchell, Cy Twombly, Bernice Bing, and Black abstractionists such as Alma Thomas and Mary Lovelace O’Neal, nieves uses abstract expressionism to create space for reflection, vulnerability, and healing. Her practice integrates painting, writing, soft sculpture, and text-based works, using each medium to process memory, emotion, and lived experience. Text appears in her work as fragmented language, handwritten notes, or layered phrases—sometimes legible, sometimes obscured—mirroring the nonlinear path of healing and the complexity of self-expression.

Her soft sculptures often incorporate fabric and fiber, emphasizing tactility and domesticity while honoring the labor of care and survival. These sculptural works act as extensions of the body, offering both comfort and confrontation, and further expanding her visual vocabulary beyond the canvas.

Her intuitive, movement-based process often involves completing a painting in a single session, guided by music and sensation. Through expressive mark-making and abstract composition, she gives visible shape to the biological and emotional processes of trauma, adaptation, and transformation—whether inherited, historical, or deeply personal.

As a Black, queer, neurodivergent woman, nieves uses her practice to assert presence and agency, carving out space where her full humanity can be expressed without constraint. By doing so, she invites others to embrace their own complexity and wholeness.

In addition to her studio practice, nieves is the founder of an arts nonprofit and an art magazine, both of which aim to expand access to creative expression and foster community.

nieves' exhibits internationally; selected exhibitions include Consortium Museum (Dijon, France), Art Basel (Switzerland, Hong Kong, Miami), Frieze (London, Seoul), Various Small Fires (Los Angeles), Galerie Marguo (Paris, France), Standing Pine Gallery (Tokyo, Japan) and BODE Projects (Berlin, Germany). Her work can be found in collections across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, including the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Dangxia Art Space in Beijing, Spurs Collection in San Antonio, USA, and the Rennie Collection, in Vancouver, Canada.

All inquiries: admin@addyeb.com

Artsy: A’Driane Nieves

Instagram: @adrianenievesstudio