ON VIEW
April 18 – 16, 2025
May 8 – 17, 2025

OPENING RECEPTIONS
Friday, April 18, 5 – 7 pm
Thursday, May 8, 5 – 7 pm

Paige Friedman


@_paige_friedman

Paige Friedman (b. 2001) makes monstrous soft sculptures, rooted in creating figures to explore cuteness and fear, finding comfort in horror.  In 2023, Friedman obtained a BFA in Fine Art at Towson University in Towson, MD. While attending, Friedman exhibited work in the BFA Thesis Exhibition as well as a small solo exhibition in the Storage Space Gallery titled Morbid. Most recently, Friedman’s soft sculpture figures were exhibited in a solo show titled amalgamated, at the gallery 82 Parris in Portland, ME, in May 2024.  Friedman currently lives and works in Portland, ME, and obtained an MFA in Studio Art at the Maine College of Art and Design in 2025.

Through creating large-scale soft sculptures, I am exploring how the monstrous stuffed object can toe the line by being confusing, comfortable, and overwhelming. The sculptures are rooted in creating figures to explore fear and find comfort in horror.  With the use of mutual notions of fear as a starting point for form, I am using demon-like forms to emulate the monster and evoke a more universal emotion in relation to individualized and internalized fear. I am using soft, textured materials like various fabrics and stuffing, bright colors, fuzzy airbrushing, and giant eyes to evoke comfort through the use of the aesthetic category of the cute. The object plays with our life experiences to reflect our emotions. By using a soft and stuffed monster, I find moments where both the viewer and myself can feel comforted while being uncomfortable. The work recognizes the individuality of the viewer as well as a sense of shared mutuality through an empathetic connection to reflect both comfort and fear.



The MFA Thesis Exhibitions for the Class of 2025 incorporate a range of making practices unified by the overwhelming concerns these students have for their environment, their communities, their families, and their own wellbeing. With an emphasis on the personal, and at times the anecdotal, these 17 artists make a variety of contributions in the form of ceramics, drawings, paintings, photographs, poems, prints, sculptures, sound and video installations, and textiles. The nature of their work and research demonstrates the caliber and cultural relevance of Maine College of Art & Design’s Masters in Fine Arts in Studio Art program.