Ada Friedman

b. Washington, D.C., USA, 1984
Lives and works in the Texas Hill Country & Brooklyn, NY, USA

Ada Friedman’s art is rooted in paint, routine, and ritual. Her paintings exist in different fields of action and poetry; of varying spaces of concreteness, collaboration, and interiority. Works are typically double-sided; each side contains a painting unto itself which combines with its verso into a multifaceted whole. Moved by the artist’s holistic drive to conjure worlds, her approach to the medium transforms paper - her prima materia - and discreet collections of idiosyncratic materials into symphonic accord for adventurous, graceful paintings.

She has recently been awarded the Grant Wood fellowship and a Visiting Professorship in Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa (2025-26), and she was also recently appointed Visiting Artist in Painting and Drawing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2021-22. She has participated in institutional exhibitions at Kunsthalle Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland); University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA); Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, USA); and The University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery, Knoxville, TN.

Her work is featured currently in a group exhibition, September, at Shore Gallery in Vienna, curated by Kunsthalle Zürich curator Otto Bonnen.

She and her work have been featured in BOMB magazine, Brooklyn Rail, Family Time, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, Painter’s Bread, BMore Art, and more. Friedman’s artist book, Drawing Hilma Af Klint, made in collaboration with artists Ariel Dill and Denise Schatz, was published by Miniature Garden (2014; second edition 2019). She has had recent solo exhibitions at exhibitions at Kendra Jayne Patrick (Bern, Switzerland) and David Peter Francis (New York City, USA); and has been included in group exhibitions at Nature of Things (Dallas, TX) Cleopatra’s (Brooklyn, USA); Safe Gallery (Brooklyn, USA); Ortega y Gasset (Brooklyn, USA); Grifter (New York City, USA); White Columns (New York City, USA); Night Gallery (Los Angeles, USA), among others. She presented a solo presentation at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, an acclaimed two-person presentation at Independent 2025, and was featured in The Living Room, a special curated selection of art and artists at Art Genève 2023.

CURRENT
Star
solo exhibition
Kendra Jayne Patrick
• Bern
vernissage: 10. October. 2025

CURRICULUM  VITAE.    SELECT PRESS.