Penland Winter Residency: Distinguished Fellow Ada del Pilar Ortiz Berríos

Apr 9

Apr 9 Penland Winter Residency: Distinguished Fellow Ada del Pilar Ortiz Berríos

In the 73rd episode of Perceived Value, host Sarah Rachel Brown is at the Penland School of Craft during their Winter Residency. This episode is part of a special series featuring the Distinguished Fellows of the Penland Winter Residency. As the Andrew Glasgow Resident, Sarah has been awarded two full weeks to conduct interviews and research at Penland during their winter program. Sarah was encouraged to share a portion of her work with Penland’s artist community, thus this special series.

The first Distinguished Fellow to be featured is Ada del Pilar Ortiz Berríos, a visual artist and educator based in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. This past November, Sarah traveled to San Juan, PR, for the first time and, while there, visited the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. At this museum, she came across Ada’s work, not knowing that she would have the chance to interview her two months later. The two artists sat down to discuss Ada’s life in Puerto Rico, the residencies Ada has completed, and what she is focusing on during her time at Penland.

This special series is possible due to the support of the

Penland School of Craft and the Andrew Glasgow Residency.

Thank you to the Penland staff and artists for the generosity of your time and participation.

Ada del Pilar Ortiz Berríos (b.1995 Barranquitas, Puerto Rico) is a visual artist and educator. Her artistic practice interacts with sculptural processes that explore issues within the architectural condition, the meaning of home, the remains of built space and their relationship with memory. Through her work she reflects on how these concepts shape us in the place we inhabit from its physicality and the one that resides in us from memory -both concrete and malleable- as part of our formation, establishing a link between the reality of a place and the imagined one. Ada del Pilar obtained her BFA with a concentration in Painting from the School of Fine Arts and Design of Puerto Rico in 2018. Her work has been presented individually and collectively in spaces such as the Arsenal de la Puntilla Museum, El Kilómetro Gallery, Embajada Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico and the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center in New York, among others. She has participated in residencies including Área: Programa de Residencias (2019), “La Práctica” interdisciplinary program at Beta Local (2019), The Studios at MASS MoCA, Puerto Rico Artist Fellowship (2023) and Penland School of Crafts Winter Residency (2024). Her work has been commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico under the "MAC en el Barrio" program. Ada’s work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and CATAPULT: "A Caribbean Arts Grant" programme. She currently lives and works in Bayamón, Puerto Rico as an artist in residency in "Proyecto Casitas Artistas Residentes" of this municipality.

FIND THE ARTIST:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ada.delpilar/

Current event: https://embajadada.com/