Goatmother Industrial is an art producing entity currently based in Philadelphia, PA. Established in 2003, it serves as an identifying moniker for numerous art and sound related activities by artist Mark Rice. Originally based in Bloomington, Indiana, Rice took the title with him to the East Coast in 2009, where he has since attained his Masters of Fine Arts in printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. He is on an 11-month artist residency at Hub-Bub, an art gallery and performance space located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Rice then taught Drawing, Art History, and Art Appreciation courses at USC Upstate and surrounding community colleges. In 2013, Rice relocated to Philadelphia and is currently the printmaking instructor and product coordinator at the Center for Creative Works, a non-profit vocational day program for adults with intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities focused on therapeutic creative expression located in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.
Aside from his visual and conceptual art pursuits, Rice is noted as a talented drummer, who has performed and recorded with a host of musical groups including: Magnolia Electric Company, the Impossible Shapes, the Coke Dares, and Early Day Miners, among others. In 2009, his one-man-band, Thit, a more personal musical endeavor, began showing signs of activity, and thus became a unifying “brand” for subsequent audio works, sound experiments, and handmade audio devices.
Rice’s work, and the Goatmother Industrial tag are both deeply tied to Bloomington, Indiana, and the city’s Art Hospital non-profit art space.
The Art Hospital, of which he was a co-founder, was an artist-run non-profit art and music space that featured on-site studios. The revolving cast of Hospital artists had biannual staff exhibitions in both Bloomington and Indianapolis, even swapping shows with the members of Big Car Gallery in Indianapolis in 2008.
Outside of Indiana, Goatmother Industrial has been in exhibition at Durham, North Carolina’s Fort Grunt space, The Martin Art Gallery in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and most recently at Providence, Rhode Island’s Pearl Street space and the Gelman Gallery at RISD.
Artwork produced by Goatmother Industrial is actualized through the use of many different mediums, including: printmaking, sculptural works, art objects/products, audio, video, and fashion/apparel.
Many works involve the use of the "Rungish" language, a visually and verbally syllabic adaptation of the English language created by Goatmother Industrial.
From a material standpoint, the artist tends to incorporate recycled items from many sources, such as construction and architectural salvage, and holds steady to ideas on sustainability and reuse.
With the pretense of being a corporate entity, Goatmother Industrial sometimes incorporates alterations of existing products and product ideas, as well as installation-oriented works. Examples of such includes:
The BBBPPP (Big Bad Bag of Prints, Proofs, and Paintings) – A collection of experiments in all the mentioned mediums from throughout the history Goatmother Industrial, packaged in a non-polypropylene bag.
The “Honor System Store”- A kiosk where patrons can purchase small pieces for a price left at their own discretion.
Fantom Jukebox- An installation that lays the mythological framework for Fantum Limb Fanamatronix with the story of the future/history of Banta, Indiana, through a series of five songs and five lit and animated engravings.
Not all projects by the artist are attributed to the Goatmother Industrial title. To extend the corporate facade, work is also accredited to his proper name, as well as several “subsidiary” monikers, referred to by the official Goatmother Industrial press release as "The Umbrella of Shame"). These include:
Knifekiss Productions
Thit Sounds
Commanding Father Foods
Dogs in Paris
Fantum Limb Fanamatronix
Flowerpenis Apparel
The Honor System Store
Voyage Corps Gifts
Alottaknotts Apparel Company
Lil’ Learner’s Books
Fort Polio
(forthcoming) “The Outlet and the Exit,” Cindi Royce Ettinger Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
“REAM II” Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
“New Prints: 2015/ Autumn,” International Print Center of New York, New York City, New York
“New Prints: 2015/ Summer,” International Print Center of New York, New York City, New York
“Signs,” curated by Jessica Gatlin, Southern Graphics Council, Knoxville, Tennessee
“M.A.C.C. Print Show,” Moberly Area Community College Gallery, Moberly, Missouri
“Cat Land,” Hub-Bub Showroom, Spartanburg, South Carolina
“My Backyard Fort,” Hastings College Art Gallery, Hastings, Nebraska
“Lil’ Bub Art Show,” Yetee Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
“United States,” Archive Space, Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“13 Months of Love,” Rainbow Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana
“Artists Across America,” Flower Pepper Gallery, Pasadena, California
“Field Day,” Artscape Festival, Baltimore, Maryland
“REAM,” Station North Chicken Box, Baltimore, Maryland
“KODACHROMIA,” Heavy Brow Gallery, Bloomington, Illinois
“Yung Mail Tails: Another Reading Room Annex,” Hampden Gallery, Incubator Space, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
“2014 Truck Expo, “ Ice Box at Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Maspeth’s World of Wheels,” Knock-Down Space, Queens, New York
“Eterniday,” curated by Paolo Javier, Queens Museum, Queens, New York
“To Thine Own Self Be True,” The Showroom, Hub-Bub, Spartanburg, South Carolina
“Thank you, Come Again,” So What Space, Brooklyn, New York
“Grand Point Weird,” Grand Point North Music and Arts Festival, Burlington, Vermont
“REAM,” Station North Chicken Box, Baltimore, Maryland
“University of South Carolina Upstate Faculty Biennial Exhibition,” Curtis R. Harley Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina
“Personal Desire Propaganda,” This Red Door, DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York
“I’m Lovin’ It,” Mazda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
“Breaking Away 2” (mural project) Bloomington, Indiana
“Erroneous Tome,” Current Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland
“Elsewhere,” Public Space One, Iowa City, Iowa
“HUB-BB Artist-in-Residence Exit Exhibition,” The Showroom, Spartanburg, South Carolina
“Summer Art Show,” M.W. Warehouse, Spartanburg, South Carolina
“Doll: An Intimate Figure,” Roxanne Swentzell Tower Gallery, Pojoaque Pueblo, New Mexico
“HUB-BUB Artist-in-Residence Entrance Exhibit,” The Showroom, Spartanburg, South Carolina
“C.A.R.T.,” Current Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland
“Carnivalesque,” Paper Crane Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana
“Kites for KIWA,” Mokuhanga Conference, Kyoto, Japan
“The Rhode Island School of Design Thesis Exhibition,” Dunkin’Donuts Center, Providence, Rhode Island
“Paper Works,” Paper City Studios, Holyoke, Massachusetts
“Love and Things Like Love,” Lexington Art League, Lexington, Kentucky
“The Body,” Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
“Anxious Days,” TWIST Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
“Kites For KIWA,” First Annual Moku Hanga Conference, Seattle, Washington
“Coming and Going,” The Lodge, Bloomington, Indiana
“5$ Painting Show,” Paper Crane Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana
Break It Down, 2011, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
Inflate/Deflate, 2010, Pearl Street, Providence, RI.
Carnival, 2010, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
This is a Show about Rock and Roll, 2009, Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
The 5th Layer of the AT Most Fear, 2009, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
Bloomington Archives and Museum, 2009, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
$5 Painting Show, 2009, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
A Place for Everything, 2009, Everything in its Place, Fuller Projects, Bloomington, IN.
“Blue Skies in the Basement,” The Uptown Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana
No Danger, 2009, School of Fine Arts Gallery, Bloomington, IN.
Safety Architecture, 2008, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA.
“Yung Mail Tails: The Reading Room Annex,” Fuller Projects, Bloomington, Indiana
No Danger, 2008, Robert L. Ringel Gallery, Lafayette, IN.
Art Hospital Transport Exhibit, 2008, Big Car Gallery, Indianapolis, IN.
No Danger, 2008, Richmond Airport, Richmond, VA.
Cookout II, 2008, Rogers House, Bloomington, IN.
Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 4, 2008, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
Birds and Words, 2008, Luna Music, Indianapolis, IN.
Fresh Walls, 2008, Prima Gallery, Bloomington, IN.
Skull with a Moth Body, 2008, Runcible Spoon, Bloomington, IN.
Yung Mail Tails: Reading Room Annex, 2008, Fuller Projects in the McCalla Building, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Courtesy Call, 2008, Courtyard Marriott Room 500, Bloomington, IN.
Infinite Folio, 2007, Fort Grunt Aquarium, Durham, NC.
Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 3, 2007, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
Cookout, 2007, Rogers House, Bloomington, IN.
Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 2, 2007, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
Blue Skies in the Basement, 2007, Michaels’ Uptown Café, Bloomington, IN.
Yung Mail Tails: Window Installation, 2006, Fort Grunt Aquarium, Durham, NC.
Art Hospital Staff Exhibition 1, 2006, Art Hospital, Bloomington, IN.
City of Bloomington Postcard Series, 2006, Showers Building, Bloomington, IN.
Society of Arts and Letters, 2005, Flashlight Gallery, John Waldron Art Center, Bloomington, IN.
University of Iowa National Postcard Exchange, 2004, Iowa City, IA.
Black and White Development, 2003, BFA Thesis Group Show, School of Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana University.
The Life of Leslie Harper, 2003, Space 101, Bloomington, IN.
Know Evil, 2003, Space 101, Bloomington, IN.
Interview with Human Pyramids
