HOLD, KEEP, CARRY || Ashley Normal, Meghan Samson, Rachel Gloria Adams

On view May 19 - June 19, 2022
Reception, May 22, 2-5pm

Works by Ashley Normal, Meghan Samson, and Rachel Gloria Adams ponder themes of attachment, heirlooms, and family dynamics. Playful quilts, surreal mixed-media drawings, and expressive ceramics create a curious map of the many components that make up family life.  

Normal’s mixed media drawings illuminate the bizarre and absurd in the familiar. She composes playful ruminations on domesticity, motherhood, identity, social taboos, and staying cool under pressure. Her work connects with the Japanese ceramic method and philosophy Kintsugi, which treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object and person. Normal holds the understanding that everyone lives in their own reality, and is drawn to the relationship of attraction and repulsion, dark humor, and the surreal. She is also an art educator and has exhibited throughout the northeast, including at the Fitchburg Art Museum and Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

Samson’s clay self-portraits investigate ideas of family, motherhood, love, and attachment. Informed by strong narrative and playful forms, her visceral sculptures echo a desire to make physical the process of experiencing. Through a visual map of fingerprints and drips of glaze, she reveals the many unique and sometimes difficult parts that make up her ever-evolving sense of self. Samson has exhibited throughout New England and, in addition to her studio practice, is an educator and the owner of Mud City Clay, LLC in Rochester, New Hampshire.

Adams’ colorful, off-kilter quilts incorporate ideas of heirlooms, family dynamics, and color theory. They are extensions of her painting practice, both of which incorporate her vibrant, pattern-based visual language, filled with references to the natural world. The quilts respond to Adams’ experience as a mother and are heavily inspired by the beautiful chaos that accompanies life with her two daughters. Based in Portland, Adams is a multi-hyphenate creator whose other projects include murals and textile design. She has shown her work in and on buildings throughout New England.