About

Adrienne E. Wheeler

awheelergallery@aol.com

Visual Artist 

Artist Educator

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Rutgers University, Newark 

Adrienne Wheeler is a multi-media artist, independent curator, arts educator, and advocate for social justice. Wheeler is from a family whose history spans 200 years in Newark, NJ. 

Her works blurs the lines between spirituality, ancestry, oral history, and social engagement. The materials with which she works are varied, wood, glass, textiles, still and moving images are explored. 

Wheeler is an arts educator at Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries and Shine Portrait Studio.

Wheeler has exhibited locally and internationally including, Cuba and Australia.

 
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Solo Exhibitions

2018

Frankston Art Centre

Ventana International Women's Exhibition

Victoria, Australia

White Dress Narratives

2014

Activate Market Street

Gallery  Aferro, Newark, N.J. 

Twelve Angry Women

2011

The Brecht Forum, New York, N.Y., Moment in Time Festival, 3rd Annual Miriam Makeba Tribute

The Paul Robeson Galleries Orbit I, Rutgers University, Newark, N.J. Lembranca/Resistencia, Memory/Resistance

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, N.Y., Dance Africa

Oualie Art, Orange, N.J.,

Window Dressing II

2010

Dwyer Cultural Center, New York, N.Y., Moment in Time Festival, Miriam Makeba Tribute in Film

Park Elementary School Newark, N.J., African-American History Exhibition

2008

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, N.Y., Moment in Time Festival, Orlando “Puntilla” Rios Tribute

Brecht Forum, New York, N.Y., Moment in Time Festival, Orlando “Puntilla” Rios

2007

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, N.Y., Moment in Time Festival, Fela and Fumilayo Kuti Tribute

Group Exhibitions

2019

Between Wisdom and Madness. Works in Sculpture

Index Art Center

Newark, N.J. 

2018

Newark Arts Festival 

Newark, N.J.

Nice/Nasty

Frankston Art Centre 

Frankston, Australia

Pure Power

2017

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Express Newark

Newark, N.J.

GlassBook Project: Brick by Brick, The Ironbound Oral History Collection 

Newark Print Shop

Rutgers Express Newark

Newark, N.J.

Process

Pollack Gallery

Monmouth University

West Long Branch, N.J.

2016

University Galleries

William Paterson University 

Wayne, N.J.

Collage Effects: Art of the African Diaspora

Open Doors Newark, 2016

#SayHerNameNewark

A.I.R Gallery

New York, N.Y.

TALKBACK USA/UA

City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, N.J., ARTREACH XXIV

Living Incubator Performance Space

Gateway Center, Newark, N.J.

Misogyny Is The Root Of All Evil

Women In Media-Newark 7th Annual Women's History Month Film Festival /NJ PAC Celebration of Newark's 350 Celebration

Victoria Hall Lobby, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, N.J.  

Ventana Fiesta 2016

Frankston Art Centre

Victoria, Australia

TALKBACK USA/UA

The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series

Douglass Library, Rutgers University

New Brunswick, N.J. 

2015

Open Doors Newark, 2015

Index Art Center, Newark, N.J.

Forum in Form

Merton D. Simpson Gallery and Walsh Gallery 

Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University,

South Orange, N.J.

A River Depends on Its Tributaries

Gallery Aferro, Newark, N.J.

Echo

The Academy of Fine Arts

Lynchburg, Virginia

TALKBACK USA/UA

The Gateway Project, Newark, N.J.

GlassBook Project: Provisions

City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, N.J., ARTREACH XXIII

Artist Box, Collaborative Initiative,

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Gallery Aferro

2014

Open Doors, Newark, N.J.

Sanctuary

Pierro Gallery, South Orange, N.J.

Thou Art Mom

The Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, N.J.,

In-Site: The Creative Process in Plain View

City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, N.J., ARTREACH XXII

The Paul Robeson Galleries, Orbit II, Rutgers University, Newark, N.J., Salubrious Justice Organized by Women in Media Newark

Open Doors Newark, Newark, N.J., Dreams Before Sleeping

Gallery  Aferro, Newark, N.J., Activate Market Street

2013

Open Doors Newark, Newark, N.J., Dreams Before Sleeping

Gallery Aferro, Newark, N.J., Activate Market Street

City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, N.J., ARTREACH XXI

 Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, N.Y., PEEKSKILL PROJECT V: The New Hudson River School, Contemporary Artists Address the Regional Landscape Spring/Summer 2013

WBGO Radio, Newark. N.J., Sound Off

2012

Arlington Street Arts, Newark, N.J., Open Doors 11, N’Kisi

Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, N.Y., PEEKSKILL PROJECT V: The New Hudson River School Contemporary Artists Address the Regional Landscape  

The Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, N.J., What Can’t Be Cured Must Be Endured

The Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, N.J., Threshold of Your Mind

City Without Walls Gallery, Newark N.J., ARTREACH XX

Paterson, N.J., Paterson Art Walk

Gallery 1200, Hoboken, N.J., Extended Roots

Index Art Center, Newark, N.J., Art Cycle

Yema Gallery, Orange, N.J.,

Indigo Mood

The Pen and Brush, New York, N.Y.

 2011

The Pen and Brush, New York, N.Y.

Valley Arts District, Orange, N.J., The Sculpture Garden

Yema Gallery, Orange, N.J., Embracing the Orisha

Park Elementary School, Newark, N.J.,

Four Women Artists from Newark

MoCada (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts), Brooklyn, N.Y., Re-Imagining Haiti: Le Projet Nouveau

2010

QbaVa Gallery, Union City, N.J. La Virgen De Todos (Our Virgin)

QbaVa Gallery, Union City, N.J. Pura Cuba Show, Una Sola Isla

Ironworks Gallery, Valley Arts District, Orange, N.J.

Open Doors Newark 2010, Newark, N.J., Catfish Friday Women’s Art Collective, Mujer/Woman

Perth Amboy Gallery Center For The Arts, Perth Amboy, N.J., The Many Faces of Eve

2009

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, N.Y., Moment in Time Festival, Miriam Makeba Tribute

Open Doors Newark 2009, Catfish Friday Women’s Art Collective, Newark, N.J.

2008

Arlington Street Arts, Newark, N.J., Egun Arts

Arlington Street Arts, Newark, N.J., Three Days in May (In collaboration with Bisa Washington)

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, N.J. Tribal Roots in the Garden State, 2008 New Jersey Arts Annual (In collaboration with Zethray Peniston)

Collaborative Projects

2018

Pure Power 

In collaboration with Tania Ferrier and Negin Sharifzadeh

Frankston Art Centre

Victoria, Australia

2017

GlassBook Project: Brick by Brick

Teaching Artist in collaboration with Paula Neves, the Honors Living and Learning Community students, Tim Raphael, The Newest Americans Project, the Center for Migration and the Global City, at Rutgers University-Newark, and Nick Kline. The GlassBook Project is a social practice work by artist Nick Kline, a collaborative project that has been ongoing since 2009, this is the 11th collection of books each addressing responses to trauma. 

2014-present day

These Sacred Texts

In collaboration with Paula Neves

2014-2015

GlassBook Project: Provisions,  

(in collaboration with Nick Kline)

Rutgers University

Newark, N.J.

Teaching Artist Residencies

2018

Ventana International Women's Exhibitions Ventana Festival

Frankston Art Centre

Victoria, Australia

2017

Shine Portrait Studio

Express Newark

Rutgers University

Newark, N.J.

2016-2017

Artist-in-Residence

GlassBook Project, 11th Iteration, Brick by Brick

Rutgers University, Newark, N.J.

2014-2015

Artist-in-Residence

GlassBook Project, 10th Iteration, Provisions

Rutgers University, Newark, N.J.

Murals

2015-2016

Newark Downtown District Inaugural Mural

Gateways to Newark, Portraits, 42 Dresses

Amtrak Retaining Wall, McCarter Highway

Newark, N.J.

Commissions

2017

Jonathan Rose Companies with Newark Arts

Public Art Installations 

Nell Painter Collection

2016

Public Art Tribute to Dr. Clement A. Price,

The American Assembly, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation 

Independent Curatorial Projects:

2018

COMPASSION: Is It the Radicalism of Our Time

Gallery at 14 Maple

Morris Arts and the Dodge Foundation

Transitions, Co-Curator with Gladys Barker Grauer

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Rutgers University, Newark, N.J.

2017

Speaking Her Mind: Then and Now

Gladys Barker Grauer

Gallery Aferro

Newark, N.J.

Women In The World, Co-Curator with 

Gladys Barker Grauer

Newark Public Library, Main Branch 

Newark, N.J.

Women In The World, Co- Curator with 

Gladys Barker Grauer

NJPAC Victoria Hall

Newark, N.J.

Women In The World, Co-Curator with

Gladys Barker Grauer

Monmouth University Center For The Arts

West Long Branch, N.J.

Women In The World, Co-Curator with 

Gladys Barker Grauer

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Rutgers University

Newark, N.J.

Seed Grant Curatorial Residency

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Office of the Chancellor

Rutgers University

Newark, N.J.

2016

Seed Grant Curatorial Residency

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Office of the Chancellor

Rutgers University 

Newark, N.J.

2015

Open Doors Newark, 2015

Seed Grant Curatorial Residency

Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries

Office of the Chancellor

Rutgers University 

Newark, N.J.

2013

African Burial Ground, New York, N.Y., Co-curator with MalickKane, 10th Anniversary Re-interment, 2003-2013

Nell Painter Gallery, Newark, N.J.

Gladys Grauer, A Solo Show

2012

Mi Madre, Veinte Dibujos de Los Ninos Japoneses de El Concurso Internacional de Dibujo Infantil,  Tokio, Japon, 1960, Biblioteca Publica Ruben Martinez Villena, Havana, Cuba

Books for Art’s Sake, Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark, N.J.

Okasaan, My Mother, A Collection of Japanese Children’s Drawings, Montclair Public Library, Montclair, N.J.

Tipi Narratives, works on canvas and paper by Toni Thomas, Passaic County Community College

2011

“64/169”, A Resolution, An Exhibition, Open Doors Newark, an exhibition honoring the United Nations Resolution 64/169 declaring the year 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent, in collaboration with The Newark Arts Council. 

 Diaspora,Yema Gallery, Orange, N.J.,

(In collaboration with Toni Thomas)

 “64/169”, A Resolution, An Exhibition, First Installment, Montclair Public Library, Montclair, N.J.

2010

Okasaan, My Mother, Museum of Children’s Art, Oakland, Ca.,courtesy, Adrienne Wheeler Gallery

2009

Okasaan, Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, N.Y. 

2008

Works by 20th Century African-American and Latin-American Artists, Adrienne Wheeler Gallery, New York, N.Y. 

2007

Recent Works, by Danny Simmons, Adrienne Wheeler Gallery, New York, N.Y.

2006

Drawings by Robert Blackburn, Adrienne Wheeler Gallery, New York, N.Y.

2005

Sculpture by Irene Wheeler, Adrienne Wheeler Gallery, New York, N.Y. 

Cultural Exchange Programs

2018

Ventana International Women's Exhibitions Ventana Festival

Frankston Art Centre

Victoria, Australia

2014

Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, Artistic Exchange Between Eight Afro Descendant Artists from Cuba, Nevis, and The United States

2012

Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Professional, Volunteer and Board Memberships:

Gallery Aferro, Board Member

The Feminist Art Project

Rutgers University Paul Robeson Gallery Advisory Board

Catfish Friday Women’s Art Collective, Advisory Board

The Pen and Brush Gallery, Inc.

Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, Acquisitions Committee Member

The Herbert and Irene Wheeler Foundation 

Long Range Planning Committee,

The Newark Museum 

Past President,  Newark Museum Volunteer Organization 

Collections

Whitney Museum of American Art

The Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rutgers University

Gateway Projects

Matthew Gosser

Yema Gallery

Bisa Washington

Kamili Mtume

Ujima Majied

Gladys Barker Grauer

Nick Kline

Nell Painter

Tania Ferrier

Private Collections 

Press

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fartworldwomen.com%2Finspector-sorrow-white-dresses-and-angry-underwear%2F&h=ATPuEllHxC71zni-9FsEOHWHmjJC6JpH5my0qqi1HFYhpco0M41x_mhStVgt1zNbuJpvgawzsQ3KEB3XcSV4NHk-tIMJmwDc-ttjvaYBz2qaBA_z6iyj1fTGyv3WfXNYKHl2VPtixgVKVTC1VA

https://www.ida-downtown.org/eweb/docs/2016_Awards/Newark_Downtown_District_2016_Award_Submission.pdf

Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isa-freeling/newarks-art-scene-speaks-_b_8012216.html?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006 

http://princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=3-16-16-tfap

Afrig Mag, Slavery Remembrance

Le Memorial de Gorée

La Porte Du Retour pg. 11  

http://l.facebook.com/l/1AQEOGF_x/notwhatitis.com/2015/11/09/forum-in-form/

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/8012216

 MutualArt.com

 Newark Arts Photo Documentary Project 

 Activate Market Street, Star Ledger Review

 WAAND

Women Artists Archives National Directory

What Cannot Be Cured Must Be Endured, Exhibition Catalogue, pages; 25, 26, 88, 89

Art With A Message: Group Exhibit Carries Forward UN Resolution, Montclair, NJ Patch

Keeper of The Flame, Newark, NJ Patch

Re-Imagining Haiti/The Network Journal

Haiti-The Local-Fort-Greene/Blog-NYTimes.com

Re-Imagining Haiti Project

Vimeo Friends of MVMC

Adrienne Wheeler is a multi-media artist, independent curator, arts educator, and advocate for social justice. Wheeler is from a family whose history spans 200 years in Newark, NJ. 

Her works blurs the lines between spirituality, ancestry, oral history, and social engagement. The materials with which she works are varied, wood, glass, textiles, still and moving images are explored. 

Wheeler is an arts educator at Rutgers Paul Robeson Galleries and Shine Portrait Studio.

Wheeler has exhibited locally and internationally including, Cuba and Australia.