Adam Stoner makes paintings, drawings, and video installations that visualize the intimate connections between architecture and our imagined interiorities. How are we mutually inhabited by the very places we inhabit? If we build structures, do they also build us? A recent MFA graduate from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, Adam is the recipient of UWM’s Chancellor’s Graduate Student Award, Layton Fellowship, and Williams College’s Gilbert W. Gabriel Prize in Theater. Originally trained in scenic design, Adam’s research frequently explores the memory of space, the latent agency of materials, and the architectures—visible or invisible—which emerge from contact with the sacred.
For recent work and updates, follow Adam on Instagram: @AdamJamesStoner
Selected Solo and Small Group Exhibitions / Awards & Recognition / Residencies
Celestial II — Arch Enemy Arts — Philadelphia, PA October 2025
WOW^2 IX — WOW x WOW — UK September 2025
SALUT! 10 — Nucleus Portland — Portland, OR June 2025
Celestial – Abel Contemporary – Madison, WI January 2025
Brushwork – Peck School of the Arts, Milwaukee, WI October 2024
Your House is Your Larger Body – Grove Gallery — Milwaukee, WI June 2024
Cities and Souls – Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts — Milwaukee, WI February 2024
Beinart Gallery – Melbourne, AU January 2024
Middle of Nowhere – Abel Contemporary, Madison, WI January 2023
Paradiso – Var Gallery and Studios, Milwaukee – Solo Exhibition August 2022
Istanbul International Animation Festival – Best in Show for Sand Animation, the architect June 2022
Painting Invitational – Abel Cotemporary, Madison WI June 2022
The City in Miniature – Trout Museum of Art, Solo Exhibition, Appleton WI March 2022
Shelter Lures Me – Grove Gallery, Milwaukee WI – Curation and Exhibition September 2021
Palm Springs International Animation Festival – Best Animation in Sand and Salt, the architect May 2021
SECURA 2021 – Best of Show for the architect – Trout Museum of Art, Appleton WI April 2021
30x30x30 Exhibition 2020 — VAR Gallery and Studios, Milwaukee, WI 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024
Of the Between — MFA exhibition, The Tower and the Threshold April / May 2019
Taleamor Park summer artist residency and community showing, La Porte, Indiana August 2018
Interior Monologues — solo exhibition at Roberta Fiskum Art Gallery, UW Whitewater February 2018
Education
MFA in Painting and Drawing / Intermedia Studies — University of Wisconsin Milwaukee 2019
BA in Studio Art and Theater — Williams College, Williamstown, MA 2011
Teaching
Instructor — University of Wisconsin Milwaukee — Introductory Drawing; 2D Concepts 2017 - present
Label Designer for Desire Lines Wine Co., Sonoma, CA — 2017-present