Rachel Gloria Adams
Rachel Gloria Adams is a multi-disciplinary artist who works across mediums, creating paintings, murals, quilts, and graphic and textile designs. She brings a passion for dynamic color combinations and bold, clear patterns to all her work. The striking abstract compositions of her recent pieced and sewn textile works honor the celebrated quilts of the women of Gee's Bend, Alabama. For the artist, “they serve as a way of piecing together memories within an heirloom framework.” Her latest paintings draw inspiration from the Maine landscape, combining the beauty of plant forms with the color and movement of the ocean.
Adams received her BFA from Maine College of Art in 2015. She has shown her work in exhibitions throughout Maine, including the 2023 Biennial Exhibition at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. In 2022, Adams received a David C. Driskell Fellowship and Black Seed Studio Residency at Indigo Arts Alliance. She has also attended residencies at Speedwell Projects and the Stephen Pace House. In addition to her studio practice, Adams maintains a textile design business, TACHEE, and with her husband, artist Ryan Adams, has created numerous public art murals, including a recent large-scale commission for the Farnsworth Art Museum. She lives in Portland, where she serves as a board member for Space Gallery.
The collaborative project, scheduled for completion by Friday, May 26, merges the artists’ signature styles of vibrant graphic patterns of natural worlds and gem-like lettering. The work is being created on the Museum Street side of the Farnsworth’s main museum building. "You Showed Me Love" represents the inaugural work in the Farnsworth’s new mural initiative, which will invite artists to participate in this site-specific project every two years.