Past Exhibitions
Rachel Gloria Adams: "Bloom for Yesterday"
February 20, 2025 – March 26, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 20, 2025 from 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, February 20, at 5 p.m. EST
(in person): UNCW's Cultural Arts Building Room 2033
"Bloom for Yesterday" is a collection of 10 quilts that highlight moments of tenderness within the Adams family. A combination of paint and quilting are patched together to capture these seemingly small moments that reflect the happiness, pride and depth of motherhood. These moments are depicted in an illustrative style that distills the essence of its subjects. Subtle clues of the subjects identity are exposed whether it be the strong emphasis on hair to allude to the blackness of the subjects or patterning within their clothing. In many ways each piece serves as self portraiture as they are moments that have evoked an emotional response from the artist.
Adams comes from a lineage of quilters and creatives. The practice of quilting allows Adams to work from home within the chaos of raising two daughters. Her girls, Zoe and Norah are able to experience these moments and witness the process of translating life into art through their mothers lens. Adams has created heirlooms that memorialize these specific points in time for the Adams and provide a tangible means of holding onto these moments.
The quilts themselves breakdown art institution norms by bringing together painting and craft. These objects give the viewer the sensation of warmth, comfort and home.
"Bloom For Yesterday" in essence is a love letter to Adams younger self. As products of divorce and troubled youths, both Rachel and Ryan are dedicated to providing a life for their girls that is full of adventure, creativity and love. In many ways they are able to experience things for the first time alongside their girls and in return their own inner child is able to blossom in ways they didn’t know they were capable of. On a broader scale the work serves as a reminder of Black joy. As a Black family living in Maine it is not often Black families are represented enjoying the Maine landscape. These moments provide a narrative of joy despite the hardships people of color endure.
BIO
Rachel Gloria Adams is a multidisciplinary artist living in Portland, ME. Adams has developed a vibrant, graphic pattern-based visual language filled with references to the natural world that possess an heirloom quality. Her work takes form by way of quilting, painting, design and large-scale murals.
Adams moved to Maine in 2005 to pursue her BFA from the Maine College of Art and Design. She has gone on to exhibit artwork at Center for Maine Contemporary Art Dowling Walsh Gallery and Portland Museum of Art. She has attended residencies at Speedwell, Stephen Pace House and is an Indigo Arts Alliance David C Driscoll Fellow. Her artwork has been acquired by the Farnsworth Art Museum and several personal collections. In addition to her studio practice, Adams has been commissioned to create murals for several institutions including the Children’s Museum of Portland, University of Maine and the Farnsworth Art Museum.
This spring Adams alongside her husband and creative partner will install a mural at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts.
Pam Toll: "Longing and Movement"
Jan. 13, 2025 – Feb. 13, 2025
Reception: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 from 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Artist Talk: Thursday, Jan. 30, at 5 p.m. in the CAB Art Gallery
Pam Toll’s “Longing & Movement” is an exhibition of narrative paintings and collage, made in different places and at various times throughout Toll’s career, but exhibited together for the first time.
There are works made after her first residency in Macedonia in 1991, works painted on Bald Head Island in North Carolina, and collage paintings made for an ongoing memoir series, “The Familiar Distance in Going Home”. Also included are new works.
Pam Toll
Fall 2024 Senior Exhibit
