b. 1995
After receiving a theater and fine arts degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Athena Parella was accepted into a three-year scenic painting apprenticeship program in New York. In 2020, she completed approximately four-thousand hours of training in Broadway shops and television production studios and has continued painting for theater during the day and in her New York studio in the evenings.
Thematically, Athena's paintings address her fascination with disquieting, liminal spaces of the late 90s/early 2000s. Sometimes these spaces cross into surrealism, but they always relate to her childhood experiences. She works primarily in oil, charcoal, and graphite.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 - The Shape of Things, BAU Gallery, Beacon, New York
2024 - Beauty in the Ordinary, AVA Center, Gillette, Wyoming
2024 - Salut 9, Nucleus Portland, Portland, Oregon
2023 - Unframed, Shockboxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, Califiornia
2023 - Summer Camp, Shockboxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, California
2023 - Nostalgia, District Arts Gallery, Frederick, Maryland
2022 - Memento, Arden Gallery, South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, Massachusetts
2022 - Liminal II, Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2022 - Artist's Choice, Rhode Island Water Color Society, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
2022 - Providence Art Club National Open Juried Exhibition, Maxwell Mays Gallery, Providence Art Club, Providence, Rhode Island
2020 - SMALL WORKS 7th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Main Street Arts Gallery, Clifton Springs, NY
2019 - Crossroads, Gallery 372, Worcester, Massachusetts
Residencies, Awards and Recognition
2024- NG Creative Art Residency, Maussane-les-Alpilles, France
2022- 2nd Place Memento, Arden Gallery, South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, Massachusetts
2022 - Award of Merit Providence Art Club National Open Juried Exhibition, Maxwell Mays Gallery, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI