Born: 1952 Richmond Heights, Missouri
Studied: Ohio University, Painting, MFA and University of California, Irvine, Studio Art, MFA
Currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California

Abeles is an artist who crosses disciplines and media to explore and map the urban environment and chronicle broad social issues. The “Smog Collector” series brought her work to national and international attention in the art world as well as mainstream sources such as Newsweek and Dan Rather. Abeles’ mid-career survey, “Encyclopedia Persona A-Z” toured the United States and South America, and was awarded the Best Regional Museum Show category for 1993-94 by the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). She represented the U.S. in both the Fotografie Biennale Rotterdam and the Cultural Centre of Berchem in Antwerp.

Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Museum of Art, The United States Information Agency, and is archived in the library collections of the Museum of Modern Art , Coooper-Hewitt Publication Design Collection of the Smithsonian, The Banff Centre for the Arts Library Collection, Banff, Alberta, Canada and in the Museum of Modern Art Library Collection, NYC, Sandwell Community History and Archives, U.K., Yucun Museum, Suzhou, China, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles. Abeles has been awarded grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Peter Norton Foundation, and fellowships from J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the California Arts Council.