Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Elizabeth Adams has lived in New York City for most of her adult life. She is profoundly influenced by the density of people, languages, and forms in her adopted city. 

Adams graduated with honors from Brown University with a degree in Modern Culture and Media, studying literature, semiotics, and art. She worked for many years as an investigator for the Capital Punishment Project at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and as a social issue documentary filmmaker. Adams served as co-producer, assistant editor, and sound recordist for the Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning film, Southern Comfort. 

She studied drawing and painting at the New York Studio School where she received the Premier Prize for Drawing and Painting and was awarded a painting fellowship. She spent a semester at the Slade School of Art in London and earned a Masters in Fine Arts at California College of the Arts. Adams has exhibited in various group shows, including FiveMyles Gallery. After raising her two children, she is now working in her studio full-time and looks forward to exhibiting more.