kelli rae adams utilizes clay in various states of permanency—often alongside additional materials—to create installation-based works that examine prevailing economic systems and probe our existing relationships to labor, currency, and value. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues such as MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design (Washington, DC), the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University (Providence, RI), and the Museum of International Ceramic Art (Denmark). She has been a fellow at the Halcyon Arts Lab (Washington, DC) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Amherst, VA) and artist-in-residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO), Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM), the Studios at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), and Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center (Denmark), among others. In 2019, she served as arts envoy to Honduras for the US Department of State. Her study of ceramics began in Japan, where she apprenticed over a period of five years with Tetsuro Hatabe, a master potter in the Karatsu tradition. adams holds an MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in visual arts and Spanish from Duke University.
kelli rae adams
Fields of the Future Research Fellow, Spring 2023
Visiting Faculty and Fellows