Adrian Arleo

Adrian Arleo has spent the last 31 years living outside Missoula, Montana, where she raised her family and currently resides with a menagerie of animals. She works full time as a ceramic sculptor, and says the following about her work:

“For over 40 years, my sculpture has combined human, animal and natural imagery to create a kind of emotional and poetic power. Often there’s a suggestion of a vital interconnection between the human and non-human realms; the imagery arises from associations, concerns and obsessions that are at once intimate and universal. The work frequently references mythology and archetypes in addressing our vulnerability amid changing personal, environmental and political realities. By focussing on older, more mysterious ways of seeing the world, edges of consciousness and deeper levels of awareness suggest themselves.”

Adrian studied Art and Anthropology at Pitzer College (B.A. 1983) and received her M.F.A. in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design in 1986. She was an Artist in Residence at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 1986-87, at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in 1987-88 and in 2012, was an invited artist for the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency, also at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.

Adrian’s work is exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in numerous public and private collections.  She received awards from the Virginia A. Groot Foundation in 1991 and 1992, and in 1995, was awarded a Montana Arts Council Individual Fellowship. Her work has been widely published in books, magazines, and on the internet. Adrian is a frequent workshop instructor across the US and abroad, and enjoys teaching courses on figurative ceramic sculpture.