About
Adriana Miranda (b. 1995) is a Chicago-based painter originally from Phoenix, Arizona and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. Working through figuration and abstraction, Miranda creates psychologically charged paintings that examine memory, identity, performance, and emotional inheritance through a distinctly contemporary lens. Drawing from personal experience, Adriana is interested in romanticizing ordinary moments and everyday rituals that are often overlooked or lost after growing up in a traumatic environment. Her paintings take familiar scenes, like lounging by a pool, reading alone, playing games, sitting with pets, and moving through nightlife into emotionally heightened spaces shaped by nostalgia, escapism, and desire for comfort. Seemingly simple moments become acts of reflection, survival, and starting over. Adriana's paintings are populated by distorted animals, cartoon-like figures, and symbolic objects that function as emotional stand-ins. Using saturated color, loose brushwork, and exaggerated forms, Adriana builds visual narratives suspended between humor, discomfort, fantasy, and vulnerability. References to childhood imagery, internet culture, pop iconography, and personal memory recur throughout her work, reflecting the emotional excess and fragmentation of contemporary life. Adriana is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Humanities at the University of Chicago with a focus on Japanese studies, an influence that increasingly informs her relationship to visual storytelling, symbolism, and contemporary image culture. Influenced by David Choe, Yoshitomo Nara, and Paul Klee, Adriana approaches painting as instinctive and narrative-driven. Her work resists fixed interpretation, instead inviting viewers into unstable yet intimate environments where they can connect with her over familiar feelings.
2026 · Acrylic on canvas · $5 Wall score
The woman having her morning espresso is a character created by Adriana to share her experience as an adult who came from chaos. The woman is often set in worlds containing abnormal scenes of chaos or destruction, but remains calm and relaxed beside them.