Take a Load Off

SPACE is honored to present the first Maine solo exhibition of acclaimed artist and illustrator Martha Rich. This show is meant to be a respite from the stresses, frustrations, anxieties and exhaustion of daily life. Come in and sit with Rich’s vibrant colors, words, shapes and conversations with no expectations. Laugh, connect, cry, smile, remember, grieve, breathe, take a load off. You aren’t alone.

In the back gallery in conjunction with this exhibition, Rich presents a new collaboration with artists X. Fang and Heather Ramsdale, offering a space to think about loss and remember loved ones who have left us. This project is inspired by the Chinese tradition of burning paper money and objects to make sure loved ones are taken care of in the afterlife. Each one of the artists has a connection living between Philadelphia and Maine. They each recently lost a close family member and are creating this temporary paper feast and installation to honor and remember them. Visitors are encouraged to remember their own loved ones.

Martha’s signature cut out paintings and new works were available for an exclusive pre-sale for in-person gallery visitors on the First Friday Art Walk artist’s reception/SPACE’s 22nd birthday on August 2nd and on Saturday, August 3rd during gallery hours. The online art sale PDF and instructions is viewable and will be updated regularly here.

Take a Load Off is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Martha Rich was born in Bangor and is currently a Philadelphia-based artist working in the commercial and fine art fields. She is a graduate of Art Center College of Design (BFA) in Pasadena, CA and the University of Pennsylvania (MFA) and spends her days making art for fun and money. She teaches in the MFA Illustration program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and illustrates for clients including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Blue Q, and Chronicle Books among many others. Rich worked in corporate America for 15 years when at 35, to cope with divorce, she quit her job in HR at Universal Studios Hollywood and went back to school to study illustration. Her work can be seen on murals, socks and shopping bags, in magazines, books and music videos, and in galleries internationally, most recently at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia. Her work is centered on words and images garnered from observations of everyday life. She became a chronic eavesdropper after moving back home to Philadelphia from LA and getting out of her car. Lives are lived here in close proximity. Rich’s art is a record of humans and nature living out loud. It may not make sense, but it will tell you a story whether you like it or not. Martha is currently planning a seasonal return to the state with a forthcoming studio in Downeast Maine.

Heather Ramsdale completed an M.F.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, 2010. She received a BA in Studio Art from SUNY Cortland and studied sculpture at Goldsmiths College in London, UK. She is the recipient of two Pollock-Krasner Foundation fellowships and completed a residency at Joya: arte + ecología, an arts-led field research center, in Andalucía, Spain. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Dowd Gallery at the State University of New York at Cortland, and Lycoming College Art Gallery in Williamsport, PA. She continues to exhibit her work nationally, is an Associate Professor of Sculpture at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, and lives in Philadelphia and Downeast Maine.

X. Fang is an artist and maker of books for young readers. Born in Taiwan, raised in the South, and after stints in New York City and Philadelphia, she currently lives in Midcoast Maine. X. Fang is represented by Erica Rand Silverman at Stimola Literary Studio.

Important note: Martha Rich’s solo exhibition planned in 2020 evolved into a flag commission and 2020 Vote by Mail poster campaign that took over the windows of SPACE due to our unprecedented pandemic closure; after four years, SPACE is especially thrilled to be presenting a gallery exhibition of new works.