Astronomer Painting

Arabella Proffer is a painter whose loose narrative themes revolve around a fascination with punk rock, aristocrats, the history of medicine, and biomorphic organisms. She attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA before receiving her BFA from California Institute of the Arts where she studied under artists such as John Mandel, Derek Boshier, Jim Shaw, Raymond Pettibon, and Suzan Pitt. Arabella participates in solo and group exhibitions throughout North America as well as parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. Her book The National Portrait Gallery of Kessa: The Art of Arabella Proffer was published in 2011 by Cooperative Press, and she was awarded an Ohio Arts Council grant in 2016, an Akron Soul Train fellowship in 2019, and Andy Warhol Foundation Satellite Fund Award in 2020. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Plain Dealer, GOOD Magazine, Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoz, The Harvard Gazette, Scene Magazine, Hektoen International Medical Journal, Creative Minds in Medicine, and more. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and bred in Southern California, she lives on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.