Shelley Adler
Shelley Adler
1960 -
Shelley Adler has made a name for herself painting self-reflective portraits using bright colours and deft brushwork. Adler was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1961. In 1983 she completed her BFA from York University and in 1987 her MFA from Boston University. For the next 20 years she exhibited mostly in artist collective galleries such as the Loop Gallery in Toronto. She calls this slow period (during which time she also began a family) a 20-year apprenticeship. Her perseverance and dedication to her career eventually paid off, when in 2006 she began exhibiting with Nicholas Metivier Gallery.

Adler is committed to her craft, and, a careful observer, she patiently allows for each work to develop according to its own trajectory. Most of her portraits are of people she knows. She uses harsh lighting and other strategies such as painting from Polaroids to simplify facial features, and avoid a naturalistic rendering of her subjects. Her approach presents her sitters in a spatially flat manner, brought to life with vivid colours and confident brush-strokes. Adler’s subjects are surprisingly immediate; placed in a centralized frontal position, their gaze often directly stares back. Her delicate and purposeful handling of paint belies the confrontation of this positioning, revealing something intimate about her subject. These are not portraits of specific people, but of their humanity.

Adler has had numerous exhibitions at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, and has been exhibited in Berlin, Miami and New York, including Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London (2008), Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York (2008) and Madison Gallery, La Jolla, California (2015 and 2016).
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Reader by Shelley Adler sold for $11,250
Shelley Adler
Reader
84 x 60 in, 213.4 x 152.4 cm
oil on canvas
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $11,250 CDN (premium included)
Art of Today on Thursday, March 26, 2020
Arla by Shelley Adler sold for $6,250
Shelley Adler
Arla
84 x 72 in, 213.4 x 182.9 cm
oil on canvas
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000 CDN
Sold for: $6,250 CDN (premium included)
June 2017 - 4th Session on Thursday, June 29, 2017