Andrea Abarca-Coutts

Andrea Abarca-Coutts was born in Iquique, Chile in 1987 and moved to New Jersey when she was three years old. Andrea gained acceptance to Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts where she specialized in drawing and book 
making. In 2010 she began attending the Rhode Island School of Design for art education. During her time at RISD she worked as a teaching artist at a Portfolio Preparation program run by RISD for urban high school students. In 2012 she started a Post Baccalaureate Certificate program at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth concentrating on Drawing. She was invited to join the MFA program shortly thereafter. Andrea views drawing as the most honest of art forms. This manifests itself in her work when she utilizes the sketchy, sinuous quality of drawing to create feelings of dirtiness and unrest that contrast with the cleansing atmosphere of the bath tub. A juxtaposition of the sensations of dirt and grime with those of the sterile, clean bathroom are often present in her work.

By Zachary Ritter

 

 

 

 

 

“Infinite Layers” New Brunswick Art Salon 2013 Part II Water Color Exhibition

 

 

Selected Exhibtions:

Solo:

“Vessel Most Clean” Gallery 244, UMass Dartmouth,

New Bedford, MA 2013

Orpha’s Coffee Shop, Skillman, NJ 2006

Group:

“Student Art Show” The Gallery at Worcester State

University, Worcester, MA 2013

“black ink” The OLEK Pop-Up Projects, Astoria, NY 2012

“CityArts Arts Blossoms Gala Auction” Roger Williams

Botanical Gardens, Providence, RI 2010

“CityArts Staff Show” Providence CityArts,

Providence, RI 2009-10

“Films for Social Change” Tufts University, Medford, MA, 2008

“Animals in the Sun” Brown and Brew Cafe, Medford, MA 2008*

“Terminal C Show” Boston Logan Airport, 2008*

“SMFA Spring Drawing Show” Boston, MA

“Transitions: Drawing into Painting” SMFA, Boston, 2007

**took part in the curation of the show.

Selected Awards:

Fellowship Award Recipient UMass, Dartmouth 2013-2014

Scholarship Recipient UMass, Dartmouth 2012-2013

RISD Fellowship Grant 2011

Gretchen Clapp Orr Scholarship 2011 + 2012

Americorps VISTA Service Scholarship 2010

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Merit Scholarship 2005-8

Medici Society Full Tuition, SMFA Sholarship 2008

Teaching Experience:

Teaching Artist

2013-Present, Artworks! New Bedford

No Place for Hate; Jewish Federation of NB Holocaust

Project, Contemporary Heroes Portrait Photo Project

Students Ages, 14-18, New Bedford, MA

Program Leader + Instructor

Summer 2011, Ursuline Sisters Orphanage and Refugee Center for Girls, Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti

Teaching Assistant + Community Liason

Fall 2010, Rhode Island School of Design,

Communtiy Arts Project under John Chamberlin

Visiting Teaching Artist

Fall 2010 , Providence ¡CityArts! for Youth!

“Arts in the Future” Ages 8-10

Visiting Teaching Artist + Assistant

Fall 2010, RISD Project Open Door

Portfolio Preparation and Foundations at

Central Falls High School, Central Falls, RI