BIO
Vivien Abrams Collens is a mid-career abstract artist born in Cleveland, Ohio, whose current practice includes large scale site specific sculpture installations.
After graduating with a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, she studied in San Miguel de Allende Mexico for two years,
receiving an MFA from Institute Allende.
In 1970 she returned to her home town of Cleveland , where she rented a studio in Cleveland and worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 1977, after achieving regional recognition for her work, relief wall constructions, and shaped constructed painting installations, she moved to NYC, where she received numerous fellowships, including Yaddo and MacDowell. Her early NYC works (signed Vivien Abrams) were widely shown in NYC and elsewhere in the 70s and 80s and are in museum and corporate collections.
Approaching the end of her childbearing years, she married in 1985, had two children and took her husband's surname
. During the following years of family responsibility, Collens continued her studio practice, focusing on painting and whimsical relief constructions.
In 2015 Collens had a NYC solo exhibition, “Urban Studies and City Blocks” at the Rockefeller Center gallery of Gensler architects. City Blocks, her first freestanding sculptures, were exhibited there with her Urban Studies paintings from the past few years. At that point she decided to focus on sculpture. With an irreverent playful approach, Collens began developing larger sculptures, inspired by the teachings of Friedrich Froebel, and focusing on urban architecture and fluid energy.
These led to a dialogue with the environment and public sculpture. During a 2017 residency at Salem Art Works, Collens learned to weld. Since then she has created numerous installations at sculpture parks and museums of her large scale public sculptures.
contact her for site specific sculpture proposals
After graduating with a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, she studied in San Miguel de Allende Mexico for two years,
receiving an MFA from Institute Allende.
In 1970 she returned to her home town of Cleveland , where she rented a studio in Cleveland and worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 1977, after achieving regional recognition for her work, relief wall constructions, and shaped constructed painting installations, she moved to NYC, where she received numerous fellowships, including Yaddo and MacDowell. Her early NYC works (signed Vivien Abrams) were widely shown in NYC and elsewhere in the 70s and 80s and are in museum and corporate collections.
Approaching the end of her childbearing years, she married in 1985, had two children and took her husband's surname
. During the following years of family responsibility, Collens continued her studio practice, focusing on painting and whimsical relief constructions.
In 2015 Collens had a NYC solo exhibition, “Urban Studies and City Blocks” at the Rockefeller Center gallery of Gensler architects. City Blocks, her first freestanding sculptures, were exhibited there with her Urban Studies paintings from the past few years. At that point she decided to focus on sculpture. With an irreverent playful approach, Collens began developing larger sculptures, inspired by the teachings of Friedrich Froebel, and focusing on urban architecture and fluid energy.
These led to a dialogue with the environment and public sculpture. During a 2017 residency at Salem Art Works, Collens learned to weld. Since then she has created numerous installations at sculpture parks and museums of her large scale public sculptures.
contact her for site specific sculpture proposals