In 2018, Australian artist Adriana Picker followed the path of many antipodean creatives, and moved her life to The Big Apple. Her new exhibition, Vases from the Met, is directly inspired by this experience, described by Adriana as ‘a tribute to many days spent exploring the gigantic collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.’

The museum served as a place of refuge, inspiration and connection for the artist, but as anyone who has experience museum fatigue will agree, the MET can be an overwhelming treasure trove to deal with in a single visit. Adriana describes, ‘The experience of visiting the MET can be utterly overwhelming, and I tried to approach each visit with a different focus – marble sculptures, florals, and vases.’

Adriana focused on decorative vessels for this collection of paintings, and invites viewers of the exhibition to ‘accompany me on a tightly curated tour of my personal MET.’ The works retain Adriana’s trademark love of the botanical world, as she admits that she took some artistic license in adding a few floral flourishes to the designs!

The move to New York has not only provided artistic inspiration for Adriana, but has also altered her style of working. Without a studio space, she has predominately been working digitally, which has promoted a looser and more experimental return to painting. She highlights ‘my first love will always be the detailed botanical works I create, but it’s certainly a good exercise as an artist to do something completely different. Stagnation and repetition is the death of creativity.’

You might assume that the concrete jungle of NYC could prove to be a difficult home for a self-described botanical obsessive, but Adriana has found pockets of greenery throughout the city to keep her inspired. With a book of botanical illustrations on the horizon, we look forward to seeing how the artist parlays New York’s offerings into floral artworks.

Vases from the Met by Adriana Picker
January 23th to February 3rd
Saint Cloche
37 MacDonald Street
Paddington, NSW