Adam Cruces US / CH, b. 1985
Adam Cruces is a Swiss-American artist whose practice investigates how humans navigate and reinterpret the landscapes—physical, cultural and symbolic—that surround them.
Working across painting, sculpture and video, he transforms familiar materials into hybrid forms that oscillate between the domestic and the surreal. Through subtle shifts in context, his works collapse distinctions between obligation and leisure, nature and domestication, the familiar and the foreign. This interplay produces installations that evoke states of transition, inviting viewers to consider how environments—both constructed and imagined—shape perception and behaviour.
Born in 1985 in Houston, Texas, Cruces received his BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2008 and his MFA in Art and Media from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in 2013. He has exhibited internationally, including at Kunsthaus Baselland (Basel), the Swiss Institute (Milan), the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Kunsthaus Langenthal, kim? Contemporary Art Centre (Riga), Kunsthal Aarhus, and Museo della Frutta (Turin). His practice has been supported by numerous residencies such as Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Rupert (Vilnius), Cripta747 (Turin), the Sigg Art Foundation (Le Castellet), and the Nordic Artists’ Centre (Dale).
Adam Cruces lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland.
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Water Lilies (Blue on Pink), 2025Purchase
Education
2013 MFA, Kunst und Medien, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, CH
2008 BFA, Interdisciplinary Arts, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, USA
Awards/ Honors/ Residencies
2025 Fonderia Artistica Battaglia Residency, Milan, IT
Spazio Sassetti Art Residency, Florence, IT
2024 Soart Residency, Millstättersee, AT
2022 Nordic Artists’ Centre Residency, Dale, NO
Sigg Art Foundation Residency, Le Castellet, FR
2021 Nave Proyecto Residency, Guayllabamba, EC
2018 Cripta747 Studio Residency, Turin, IT
2017 Aldea Residency, Bergen, NO
2016 La Brea Studio Residency, with Louisa Gagliardi, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Rupert Residency, Vilnius, LT
2013 Werkbeitrag Bildende Kunst, Kanton Zürich
Werkbeitrag und Auslandsatelier (Paris), Stadt Zürich
Collections
Kunstsammlung der Stadt Zürich, Zürich, CH
Google, Zürich, CH
Bundesamt für Kultur, Bern, CH
Haus für elektronische Künste, Basel, CH
Rhizome at the New Museum, New York, NY, USA
Solo/ Partner Exhibitions
2026 TBA, Blue Velvet Projects, Zürich, CH (Forthcoming)
Mergers and Acquisitions, with Louisa Gagliardi, Ferme Asile, Sion, CH (Forthcoming)
2025 Haunts, with Louisa Gagliardi, Orthunga, Vordingborg, DK
Then and only then, with Louisa Gagliardi, Spazio Sassetti, Florence, IT
2024 Necessary Evil, Blue Velvet Projects, Zürich, CH
2023 Chimera, Public Gallery, London, UK
2022 Eavesdropping, Blue Velvet Projects, Zürich, CH
2021 When the Dust Settles, Rindermarkt 23, Zürich, CH
2020 A curse in disguise, Disneyland Paris, Melbourne, AU
2019 Pisces, Galeria Fran Reus, Palma, ES
Hair of the dog, Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio, Bologna, IT
Horsepower, Galerie Tobias Naehring & Museum Lytke, Leipzig, DE
2018 Icarus, fffriedrich, Frankfurt, DE
Rustic Murmur, Giorgio Galotti, Turin, IT
2017 Fondante, Museo della Frutta, Turin, IT
Gravity’s Accent, Obst, Chicago, IL, USA
Tastes like headaches, kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, LV
2016 Tell, OLM Space, Neuchâtel, CH
Pastel, Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris, FR
What A Silencer Sounds Like, with Sinae Yoo, Kunsthaus Langethal, Langenthal, CH
2015 Diet Sonata, Smart Objects, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Sift, Levy Delval, Brussels, BE
Fixing to, Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris, FR
2014 Un Coucher de Soleil, Exo Exo, Paris, FR
29, Plymouth Rock, Zürich, CH
Black Hole, Phonebox, IMO, Copenhagen, DK
2013 Point White Range, No Floor at NERO Headquarters, Rome, IT
Nothing To See Here, with Enrico Boccioletti, Swiss Institute, Milan, IT
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Climate Fiction, Musée de Carouge, Geneva, CH
Fragment II, Commune, Vienna, AT
2024 The Last Artwork, Kunsthalle 8000, Wädenswil, CH
2023 Basel Social Club, Basel, CH
Care Package, Blue Velvet Projects, Zürich, CH
2022 Proposition, Damatti, Basel, CH
2021 Werkschau, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, CH
Lugari, Rudimento, Quito, EC
2020 Werk- und Auslandatelier- Stipendien, Halmhaus, Zürich, CH
A Table for 50, Galerie PCP, Paris, FR
2019 La Thune, Smallville, Neuchatel, CH
Observer of the Techniques, WallRiss, Fribourg, CH
Voi rubate del tempo alla fretta, a noi il mare ci impone lentezza, Castro, Ansedonia, IT
2018 Drawings, 650mAh, Hove, UK
First I Have to Put My Face On, Foothold, Polignano a Mare, IT
Jugend ist Trunkenheit ohne Wein, Bikini, Basel, CH
2017 Built like a memory, Tag Team, Bergen, NO
Mount Analogue, Platform, Stockholm, SE
Harmoniemusik und Vogelschiessen, Shanaynay, Paris, FR
2016 The Conference, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, DK
For Granted, Hole Of The Fox, Antwerp, BE
Dear Betty: Run Fast, Bite Hard!, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, IT
2015 Unhide, Smart Objects, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Fit For Purpose, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, CH
2014 Nie Jetzt, Helmhaus, Zürich, CH
Megarave, Kunsthaus Langethal, Langenthal, CH
2013 It Is All In The Detail, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, CH
Hyper Spectral Display, 55 Sydenham Rd., Sydney, AU
2012 Synthetic Vertigo: 002 Eye Rubs, Elaine MGK, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, CH
Collect the WWWorld, Haus für Elektronische Künste, Basel, CH
