He/They pronouns
b. 1996, Wellington, New Zealand
A/bel Andrade is an interdisciplinary transmasc-disabled artist and educator. They currently split their time between Brooklyn, New York and Toronto, Canada.
Abel is a sculptor, metalworker, and performance artist, regularly working in multiplicity through the editioning of their works and through the performance of repetitive obsessive actions and stims. Bel lives with a post-viral nervous system disorder that causes them to frequently faint, integrating elements of their queer-crip identity into their work through the visual analysis of systemic collapse and intentional failures. Their public art practice invites viewers to appreciate the complex and interconnected nature of the human experience, seeking to dismantle and disrupt systemic barriers in the building of a crip-Utopian future.
Bel obtained their Masters in Fine Art in Studio Arts from Parsons School of Design at the New School (New York, 2023), and completed their Bachelor in Fine Arts in Sculpture and Installation at OCAD University with a Minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies (Toronto, 2020). They have previously worked as a monitor in foundry, mouldmaking, and metal studios, and served as a Teaching Assistant in the Parsons School of Design Bachelors of Fine Arts department (2021-2023). Abel has participated in residencies with Artscape (Toronto, 11/2020-03/2021) and Uncool Artist International (Brooklyn, 01/2024-06/2024), and is engaged in continuous learning in the field of Net Art by participating in a program run by the School for Poetic Computation, NYC (06/2024-/09-2024). They are a repeat attendee at the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices in Birmingham, Alabama (04/2019, 04/2023).
Abel has received a Canada Council for the Arts Residency Grant (06/2024), a DisArts Artistic Production Grant (06/2024), the SICK Magazine Disabled Sculptors micro-grant (11/2023), the Parsons School of Design Graduate Research Award (03/2023), an ArtScape Foundation Launchpad Bursary (11/2020), the Bluma Appel Thesis Award (05/2020), and the Toronto International Film Festival Battle of the Scores Best Score award as member of Porcelain Citizen (02/2015).