Locks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings and drawings by esteemed Philadelphia artist Edna Andrade. Following the critical and widespread popular acclaim of her recent retrospective exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, this exhibition presents a concise group of works completed during the 1970s—offering an in depth look at Andrade’s striking technical and formal explorations from this period. With a masterful use of shimmering color and precise linear compositions, these works exemplify the artist’s unwavering commitment to the primacy, complexity and mystery of visual experience.
Graduating from the collaborative degree program of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania in 1937, Andrade would later become a celebrated professor at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) where she influenced generations of students—providing a lucid example of the expressive and creative potential to be found in an unapologetic exploration of the formal properties that comprise a work of art.
Since 1971, Edna Andrade has been represented exclusively by Locks Gallery. Since that time, she has been featured in over fifteen one-person exhibitions and has received numerous awards including the College Art Association Award for Distinguished Teaching of Art (1996), and the Honor Award for Achievement in the Visual Arts from the National Women’s Caucus for Art (1983). In 2002, Andrade was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, awarded by Governor Mark Schweiker. Her work is included in the collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA. Currently, her work is included in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s exhibition Popular, Pop, and Post-Pop: Color Screenprints 1930s to Now.
