Curator Close-up, A’Driane Nieves of Tessera Arts Collective
Wit chats with founder and curator of Tessera Arts Collective, A'Driane Nieves. Learn about the origins of the collective and how A'Driane is making abstraction accessible.
In October of 2018, a new gallery and arts collective centering the needs of women and nonbinary abstract artists of color sprang to life in the heart of the Kensington section of North Philadelphia. The founder, A’Driane Nieves, saw that there was a dearth of resources available to artists like herself and wanted to do what was needed to bridge that gap. From her diligence, Tessera Arts Collective was born. Since its inception, Tessera Arts Collective has provided resources and display opportunities to the demographic of artists they serve not just in the Philadelphia region, but across the United States as well. If you’re currently practicing social distancing due to COVID-19, you can still check out a public art project by Tessera! There are five wheat-pasted works by Symone Salib of art celebrating abstract women artists like Bernice Bing, Carmen Herrera, and three others strategically placed around Philadelphia! Follow Tessera Arts Collective on social media to find out more about the project and their future programming.
Wit López: So A’Driane, you’re the founder of Tessera Arts Collective. Can you tell us more about the mission, vision, and values of the organization?
Sure, I will start by saying that originally, I wanted to create some type of space that I myself as an abstract, Black, queer, woman artist did not have. I wanted to create a space where I could show my own work, which is abstract, and I could find other Black and brown abstract women artists to connect with and show their work. I wanted to create a space that, honestly, was very niche, but that has not existed. That’s really where the genesis for this came from.
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