CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEXT

RACHEL GLORIA ADAMS  MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST

As a multidisciplinary artist, Portland, Maine–based Rachel Gloria Adams is a textile designer, painter, and mural artist. Inspired by the natural beauty of Maine, she has developed a vibrantly colored, graphic visual language grounded in pattern. Her work combines geometric and organic forms in abstract compositions. Drawing from both land and ocean, she brings these forms together with what she describes as an “uninhibited approach to patterns and dynamic color combinations” in paintings, prints, quilts, sewn and painted textiles, and murals. She often collaborates with her muralist husband, Ryan Adams (b. 1984).

Rachel Gloria worked a corporate job before dedicating herself fully to her art in 2021. Having practiced art since childhood, it was an easy decision, and she has since expanded her practice to include designing clothing and, potentially, home décor. She established TACHEE, a Portland-based clothing line featuring designs drawn from her fiber art and paintings. She has always had an affinity for textiles, having grown up surrounded by graphic textiles in the secondhand shop run by her mother, also a textile artist. When she started painting, she felt these works were, ultimately, mock-ups for her work in quiltmaking. Rachel Gloria also develops her ideas on an iPad she carries so she can catch moments of spontaneous inspiration.

Many of Rachel Gloria’s abstract paintings, such as Jawbreaker (2023), reflect an aesthetic of quilt design and are reminiscent of the floral abstract shapes in the textile art of Henri Matisse. She states that she is most influenced by artists who do not limit their creative voice to a single process, much like Matisse.

She views her pieced and sewn textiles, with their quilt-like abstract patterns, as a tribute to the African American women quilt artists of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Current works such as Black Rabbit (2026) form part of a series that combines appliqué, painting, and beadwork, with plans to translate the series into larger works. Her quilts depicting affectionate scenes of family life, such as Frolic (2024), also combine painting with fiber arts.

The concept of a multidisciplinary artist—one who creates works in multiple distinct art forms—is common in the contemporary art world. “Multidisciplinary” is distinct from “interdisciplinary,” which refers to artists who blend multiple disciplines into a new art form.

Multidisciplinary artists are by no means a contemporary phenomenon. Before artists were recognized as more than “craftspeople,” working in multiple artistic disciplines was common. Western artists such as Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), and Henri Matisse (1869–1954) worked across numerous fields, producing such varied work as parade floats, costumes, religious vestments, weapons, and monument design. Similarly, the Japanese artist Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) worked as a landscape painter, textile designer, ceramic and jewelry decorator, and lacquerer. Rachel Gloria Adams continues this tradition in her varied artistic output.

Rachel Gloria Adams was born in 1987 in Pennsylvania and grew up in Massachusetts. Her childhood home was filled with African mud cloth (bogolanfini) and Swedish textiles. Her mother, also a middle school art teacher, gave her a stack of art supplies when she was young, and Adams says she has not stopped creating art since. Adams moved to Maine in 2005 to study at the Maine College of Art and Design (Portland), where she received a BFA in 2015.

In addition to collaborating on murals with her husband, Rachel Gloria has plans on expanding her own work to include quilting, translating quilt series into painting, developing a line of women’s clothing, and designing baby quilts and dolls. Along with her TACHEE line, she and Ryan curate Over Here Studio, a Portland arts community that hosts pop-up exhibitions and fosters a space where artists exchange ideas.

What are some of the biggest influences on your work, including other artists, events, or things outside of the arts?
RGA: My Mom | My mom, Sharon Chandler, is a textile artist and retired art teacher. Watching her always create as a child really showed me how to integrate art-making into motherhood.

Vintage textile craft | My mom had a vintage shop when I was a kid, and her love for vintage clothing and craft really took a hold on me. If it was embroidered, woven, or quilted, I would fall in love.

Andy Warhol + Basquiat collaboration paintings | First and only paintings that made me awkwardly cry in a museum.

Luna Luna | I learned about Luna Luna on an episode of Sunday Morning. I became obsessed and ordered the book and random items from their online gift shop. My husband saw how obsessed I had become and surprised me with a trip to LA to see the exhibition. I cried when he told me, cried when we got there and cried when we left. The idea of these artists coming together to create something beautiful not meant for white walls is just the most magical thing.

American Traditional Tattoo | The design aesthetic and simplified color palettes are so recognizable. There is also something about the permanence of them being tattooed. Thereʼs no forgiveness, and any mistake has to be remedied on the spot. When I am painting portraits on fabric, I approach the fabric with that same level of intention—no do-overs, get it right the first time.

Marimekko | The vintage textiles and garments designed by Maija Isola are like my holy grail. I love it—my house is filled with it, and I don’t see that love ever diminishing.

What is a typical workday like for you?
RGA: My workdays tend to take on different forms depending on what deadlines I am under. As a full-time creative, a lot of time is spent working with clients on developing projects ranging from design, mural, and exhibitions. I try to handle communications in the morning and then after lunch I can work on designs or in the studio.

During mural installations, we typically try to paint from 8:30 to 5:30, but depending on the location and timeline, that can fluctuate. During installs, the administrative work happens in the evening.

In contrast, I just did a residency at Surfpoint where I was able to unplug and work 12+ hour sessions in the studio, moving between painting, sewing on the machine and by hand, and beadwork.

What aspects of traditional African fiber arts or African American quilting are reflected in your art?
RGA: I grew up in a home with African appliqué, mud cloths, as well as Scandinavian silkscreened textiles. The patterning found in these textiles really informed my approach to linework and pattern within my painting. I grew up in New England, and my love for quilts really came from early shaker and Amish quilts. As my painting practice evolved and the fusion of these influences began to shine, I was gifted a Gee’s Bend book in my twenties, and it was an amazing discovery as I had never seen their work before, but I found myself really identifying with their design and color choices. While I understand the visual similarity to certain aspects of my own work and the work of Black quilters, the journey to arrive at the work is different, but there is that level of familiarity.

What is the source of your images of domestic life in your quilts?
RGA: The domestic imagery in my work comes from photographs old and new and never staged.

What are the inspirations for your Herself Clothing designs?
RGA: The collaboration between Herself Clothing would fall more in the category of a client-directed project. Heather Stilin of Herself had some vintage bandana-like fabric that she wanted me to recreate using my visual language.

Do the cut-outs of late Henri Matisse artworks influence the shapes in your paintings and sewn work?
RGA: I have a big love for Matisse’s cut-outs. I don’t think that his work is actively on my mind, but I certainly subscribe to reducing subject matter into simplified shapes and forms. I often distill what I am trying to convey. I also can identify with evolving your practice based on physical or external forces. Part of why I am gravitating toward fabric is the ease of working from home with it and when traveling for mural jobs. I have brought handwork projects with me on long car rides, my kids’ gymnastics practices, and even flights.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as an emerging artist? Or what advice do you have for young aspiring artists?
RGA: Do it for you.

What are you working on currently, and what upcoming projects can you share with our readers?
RGA: On the mural front, I have a collaborative mural coming up this spring with my husband, fellow artist Ryan Adams, in Lewiston, Maine. I have a large community-driven mural in Bangor, Maine, later in the summer. I am excited to be working on more portrait quilts for a show at University of Southern Maine.

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Written by Karl Cole, Art Historian and Curator of Images at Davis Publications. kcole@davisart.com