Born in 1933 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, but raised in Havana, Cuba, Adela Akers is a fiber artist known for her woven wall-works. Before moving to the United States to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Cranbrook Academy of Art, Akers completed a degree in pharmacy from the University of Havana, Cuba, in 1955. She cites her background in science as a strong influence and sees the application of mathematical discipline to organic materials as an ongoing exploration within her work. Akers taught at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia from 1972 until 1995. Since retiring, Akers has shifted away from the heavy fibers she used to explore form in her weaving. She now favors delicate materials including horsehair, linen, and recycled metal foil, which she painstakingly weaves and stitches into repetitive, optical wall-works. She has mounted solo exhibitions in galleries and museums around the country and is represented within numerous public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Akers has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (1947 and 1980) and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2008), and was an artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2014. Adela Akers was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2008.