About

Emily Davis Adams is a visual artist dedicated to representational painting and its possibilities as a vehicle for critical thought and meaning. Adams attended UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and UC Berkeley where she studied in both the Department of Art Practice and the College of Natural Resources. She received a BS from UC Berkeley and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in New York City, where she was also awarded the 2011 Postgraduate Fellowship. Her work has been reviewed in several publications including the Los Angeles Times and Artillery Magazine. She has taught at Queens College in New York City, Sonoma State University and Stanford University, among others. She is currently based in the Bay Area.

Contact emilydavisadams (at) gmail (dot) com / follow on Instagram @emilydavisadams

CV

Education

2011 MFA, New York Academy of Art, Cum Laude

2007 BS University of California, Berkeley

2002-2004 UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2024 I’m Your Venus, October 2024, Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles, CA

2024 Wax Moon Faces, Scroll NYC, New York, NY

2017 Somewhere Between, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2015 Painting of Levitated Mass, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2014 Ground, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

Group Exhibitions & Projects

2024 Portrait of Brenda Andrew, Cushion Works, San Francisco, CA

2023 Otherworldly, Future Gallery, Berlin

2021 Burning from the Inside, Studio Archive Project, Curated by Karla Wozniak

2020 Hotheads, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2020 Seeing Double, Richard and Rhoda Fund Gallery, ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA

2019 To Freeze the Shifting Phantasmagoria: Five California Painters, Jackie Headley University Art Gallery,

California State University, Chico, CA

2017 Faculty Exhibition, Sonoma State University Art Gallery, Rohnert Park, CA

2016  Group Exhibition, Worth Ryder Art Gallery, University of California, Berkeley

          Summer Reverie, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

          Painting and The Eye That Touches, Walker School of Fine Arts Gallery, Brock University, Ontario

          Is/Isn’t, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY

2015  Paper; Ground, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 

Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, NY

2014  Encore! Gallery Artists Group Exhibition, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2013  A Few of My Favorite Things, CB1 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

           New York Academy of Art Summer Exhibition, Allegra La Viola Gallery, New York, NY

           On the Road, The Cell, New York, NY

2012  Post Natural, New York Academy of Art, NY

          Wildlife in the Post Natural Age, Williamsburg Art Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY

          Fr**k Off, RH Gallery, NY

Selected Bibliography

Knight, Christopher. “A vast landscape unfolds in bands of color: Emily Davis Adams at CB1 Gallery,”

The Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2017.

Davis, Genie, “Recommendations: Emily Davis Adams, Merion Estes,” Visual Art Source, 2017.

Wagley, Catherine, “Emily Davis Adams: Painting of Levitated Mass”, LA Weekly, 2015.

Okawa, Moto.  “Emily Davis Adams Takes on Levitated Mass,” Art I Like LA, 2015.

 Awards/Grants/Residencies

2015 Dumfries House Fellowship and Residency, United Kingdom

2013 100 Painters of Tomorrow, Short List

2012 Santa Fe Art Institute Residency; Vasari Oil Paint Grant

2011 Post-Graduate Fellowship, New York Academy of Art; Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA grant, nominee

2010 Terra Foundation for American Art Residency, Giverny, France

Teaching

2022-2023 College of Marin

2020 (Fall) Stanford University

2017-2020  Sonoma State University 

2013-2017   City University of New York, Queens College  

2014-2015   Hofstra University

2013-2014   Montclair State University