Artist’s Statement
Colette Wright Adams
My work explores the relationship between humans and the natural world through sustained observation, painting, and drawing. Rooted in the landscapes of the American Midwest, I focus particularly on trees, botanicals, waterways, and evolving ecologies as vessels for memory, transformation, and continuity.
Using the discipline of close looking, I seek to slow perception and invite viewers into a deeper engagement with place — not as backdrop, but as a living presence carrying collective histories and shared futures. My process often involves walking, photographing, and drawing on location, later working from memory and accumulated impressions in the studio. I am interested in the tension between observation and imagination, structure and entropy, fragmentation and repair.
In the Midwest, I encounter landscapes shaped by cycles of growth, erosion, industry, restoration, and renewal. Along riverbanks and rural byways, traces of what once was exist beside what is, suggesting questions about loss, resilience, continuity, and what may yet emerge.
A painting can become a vehicle for exposing both beauty and ambiguity. Within the act of creative work, I search for a kind of alchemy: a form of communication between self, landscape, and community that allows vulnerability, mystery, and hope to surface. My artwork is ultimately an exploration of how we inhabit the land, how the land inhabits us in return, and how attention itself can become an act of care.
Ongoing projects including American Arbor: A Tender Journey, Driftless, Seed-quence, and Sand Hills Memories continue this exploration through regional landscapes, memory, ecological change, and meditative observation.
Bio
b. 1953, Mitchell Field, New York, USA
After living and studying in France, Nebraska, Switzerland, and New York, Colette Wright received a BFA, cum laude, from the University of Michigan. In 1979 she completed an MFA in painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied with Ray Yoshida, Richard Loving, and Martin Prekop.
Adams has maintained a lifelong interdisciplinary creative practice centered on painting and drawing. In addition to her visual art practice, she spent a decade working in the film industry, primarily as a writer.
Her work investigates the structures, rhythms, and evolving ecologies of the American Midwest, with particular attention to trees, waterways, and restorative landscapes. She has served for three years as a resident artist at the North Park Village Nature Center. Wright currently maintains a studio in Albany Park in Chicago.
Colette Wright Adams
b. 1953, Mitchel Field, New York, USA
🌐 www.ColetteWrightAdams.com | ✉️ colettewrightadams@gmail.com | 📍 Chicago, IL
Education
1979 MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL
1976 BFA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI — Cum Laude
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 Seedquence, North Park Village Nature Center, Chicago, IL
2026Natural Respite, Burnham Park Yacht Club, Chicago, IL
2025Meditative Landscapes, Cityside Spiritual Center Art Wall, Chicago, IL
2023Harvest, Austin-Irving Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL
2023The Nature of Seeing, North Shore Art League, Winnetka, IL
2016Mysteries & Loves, Uptown Arts Center, Chicago, IL — with Mariusz Zalesk
2011Avram Eisen Gallery, Chicago, IL — with Janet Metzger
Selected Juried & Group Exhibitions
2025Ten by Ten, Jackson-Junge Gallery, Chicago, IL
2025Intertwined: Burns, Preserves, and Restoration, North Park Village Nature Center, Chicago, IL — Curator and Artist
2025True Colors, Grove Gallery, Evanston, IL — Juror: Nina Weiss
2025The Landscape is Changing, Bridgeport Art Center Gallery, Chicago, IL — Curator: Marci Rubin
2025Terrain: Abstract – Contemporary Landscapes, 33 Contemporary, Palm Springs, FL (Online & Catalogue)
2025Radiance, Grove Gallery, Evanston, IL — Juror: Sergio Gomez
2025Drawing Painterly Conclusions, Forshay Gallery, Chicago, IL — Jurors: Dan Addington & Helen Dannelley
2025Alma Gallery, Chicago, IL — Spring Exhibition
2024CAVA Award of Excellence Exhibition, Alma Arts & Interiors, Chicago, IL
2024CAVA Spring Exhibition, Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL — Juror: Marci Rubin
2024Awakenings: Narratives of Spring, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL — Curator: Sergio Gomez
2024CAVA Winter Exhibition, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL
2024Open Canvas, Vibrant Cast Gallery, Chicago, IL
2024Memory, Christopher Gallery, Prairie State College, Chicago Heights, IL — Curator: Beth Shadur
2023CAVA’s “The Happiness Show”, Epiphany Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL — Award of Excellence
2023Oceans Between VI: Culture Flow, Oliva Gallery, Chicago, IL
2023Inspired Stories, Dwell Gallery Co., Chicago, IL
2022Midwestern Biennial, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
2022Nature vs. Nurture, Art Center of Highland Park, Highland Park, IL
2022Later Impressions (CAVA), Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
2022Word in the World, Perkolator Gallery, Chicago, IL
2022CAVA Winter Exhibition, Mayslake Peabody Estate, Oak Brook, IL
2021Inspired Explorations, Beverly Arts Center, Chicago, IL (In-vitational, CAVA Board Members)
2021Opening (Online) — Curator: Sergio Gomez
2020Urban Life, Scharpenberg Gallery, Dank Haus, Chicago, IL
2019Terrain Biennial Uptown Hub (3rd Space), Chicago, IL — Artist & Co-Curator
Installation at Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL
2018Our Art Working 2018, Japanese Consulate, Chicago, IL — Hokkaido & Chicago Artists Invitational
2018CAVA Exhibition, Beverly Arts Center, Chicago, IL
2017Grassroots, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
2017Later Impressions, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL — Best in Show
2014Artists Breakfast Group, Chicago Cultural Center, Renaissance Gallery
2013The Personal is Political, Koehnline Museum of Art, Skokie, IL
2012Polish Arts Club Exhibition, Polish Museum of America, Chicago, IL
2011University of Michigan Alumni Exhibition, Madron Gallery, Chicago, IL
2010Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL — Juror: William Lieberman
2009Drawing Attention, Tom Robinson Gallery, Chicago, IL
Residencies & Creative Projects
2026 March Scherbarth Residency - Selected AIR at Mineral Point Arts Center, Mineral Point, WI
2025–2027American Arbor — Self-directed residency along the Mississippi River
2023–Present Resident Artist, North Park Village Nature Center, Chicago Park District
Creating visual art and poetry; facilitator of public art-making workshops
2018–2019 DIY Residency, Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL — Created 100+ mixed-media works and prose poems on-site
2020–2021The Summoning… A 30-Day Collection (Online project during lockdowns)
2018–2020Art Spot Box, Founder & Co-Curator — Public art project connecting artists and businesses in Chicago
2017–2018Insight-Portrait, Director & Co-Creator — Collaborative drawing project with Northside Housing Men’s Transitional Center
2018North Lawndale Arts Festival — Creator of Rotisserie Poetrie, a draw-write participatory game
Curatorial & Community Arts Leadership
2011–2021 Founder, Director & Lead Curator, Uptown Arts Center, Chicago, IL (Program of the Preston Bradley Center)
Created shared studios, exhibition spaces, and performance areas; curated 20+ exhibitions, including:
Pulp Painting Residency (collaboration with 10,000 Ripples & Indira Johnson)
Em(body) — three-part interdisciplinary exhibition co-curated with lead curator Eden Unluata; featured ekphrasis poetry workshops (Top 5 Weekend Picks, Bad at Sports)
The Sacred Show — Art & spirituality workshops with Rev. Adam Robersmith
The Tarot Show — Invitational
Urbs in Horto: 36 Views — Juried exhibition
2010–2020 Founder & Director, Just Good Art: The Comfort of Creativity — Drop-in drawing and poetry events in Chicago pop-up locations
Created Meditation & Drawing: The Artist’s Lair (featured on Airbnb Experiences)
Professional Roles & Current Projects
2021–Present Founder & Lead Artist, BringWonder: Art & Soul Experiences
Facilitator of visual art and meditation workshops in Chicago & Chicagoland
Creator of The Emotional Culture of Food, monthly community art conversation series
Awards & Honors
Award of Excellence, CAVA “The Happiness Show”, Epiphany Center for the Arts (2023)
Best in Show, Later Impressions, Evanston Art Center (2017)
CAVA Award of Excellence, Alma Arts & Interiors (2024)
Collections & Publications
University of Michigan Alumni Collection, Ann Arbor, MI
Al Qattan Family Foundation, London, UK