Margaret Fitzgerald
Biography:
Margaret Holman Fitzgerald was born in London, England. She grew up in Japan and the United States. She studied fine art and art history in New York City at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League. She also studied at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of New Mexico.
She currently resides and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has traveled extensively in Europe, Mexico and South America finding inspiration for her work in the art, architecture and urban fabric of these places. Recently she has been exploring the relationship of the human body and other living creatures to the natural world, the environmental crisis and the hope for the future.
Margaret's paintings have been featured in solo shows in New York City, San Francisco and New Mexico. Her work is in private and corporate collections across the United States, Japan and Macao. She is currently represented by Lewallen Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art in Laguna Beach, California, and Chandler Fine Arts gallery, San Francisco, California
Statement:
Painting is an exploration into the unknown. Its is a process of revealing the underbelly of existence, the part of life that is felt but unseen.
My inspiration comes from the natural world. I am exploring the strength and vulnerability of nature, man's impact on the natural world and the hope for its endurance.
I begin each painting with a collection of imagery and ideas. I hold in my mind vague ideas of things that I have seen or heard that inspire and motivate me to begin painting. The painting process then travels away from and back to these original intentions. With each layer of paint, remnants remain of what is underneath leaving threads of past colors and forms, creating a history. After working and reworking the surface and forms of a painting it arrives at a place that is no longer literal or predictable. A painting is finished when I don't fully understand it, when it resides in between words and logic.
My paintings are large in scale. The surfaces are worked and reworked with attention to detail while remaining raw and unrefined. The shapes are bold, moving forms juxtaposed with an intricate, scraped and tooled surface, The forms in the paintings are figurative but not literal. They are suggestions of animate and inanimate forms but remain abstract.
I am interested in microscopic life forms that are the foundation of what we see. I want to show the unseen, cellular structure of life against bold visible forms. I am searching, scraping and layering to get at the potential of life. I am searching for the place that is unspoken but known and the place that resides in our hearts and is felt but remains intangible. Painting encompasses all that is and was. It is an elusive pursuit that is forever challenging and engaging. I paint because I am drawn back to the studio each day to put down a visceral feeling that is tugging at me.
Résumé:
Education
1992 Graduate Studies in Art Education, Univ. of NM, ALBQ,NM
1990 Post BA in Art Education, Univ. of NM, ALBQ,NM
1980 BA Fine Arts, Univ. of NM, ALBQ, NM
1984 Arts Students League, New York City
1978 School of Visual Arts, New York City
1976 Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Selected Exhibitions
2014 Circa Gallery, Minneapolis, Minn.
2014 Ross Art Museum, "New Work, New Mexico" Ohio Wesleyan University
2013 Lewallen Galleries, Scottsdale AZ, "Rising Stars" a group show
2013 Solo Show, Chandler Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Solo Show, Lewallen Contemporary Art, fall group show at Railyard, Santa Fe, NM
2012 Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art, Laguna Beach , CA
2012 Albuquerque Museum "Miniatures" juried exhibition, ALBQ, NM
2012 Solo Show "Natura" Lewallen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
2012 House of Figs, Group show, Exhibit 208 , ALBQ, NM
2012 "New Mexico Showcase" juried group show by Peter Frank, 516 Arts, ALBQ ,NM
2011 Solo Show, "Duende" Heidi Cho Gallery, NYC
2010 Solo Show “Desaparecer”, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2010 “A Prayer for Juarez” Gallery 1022, ALBQ, NM
2009 Solo Show, Chandler Fine Art, San Francisco, CA.
2008 Solo Show, Chandler Fine Art, San Francisco, CA.
2008 “Cradle Project”, ALBQ. NM
2008 “Giving Shelter” invitational, 516 Arts, ALBQ. NM
2007 AAF Art Fair, New York, NY
2007 “Paradox” LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2006 Solo Show, Exhibit 208, ALBQ, NM
2005 Solo show, Chandler Fine Art, San Francisco, CA.
2005 Lowe Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
2005 LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2005 American Embassy, Vatican City, Italy
2004 Amarillo Museum of Art, invitational, Amarillo, TX
2004 Thomas Ingerick Gallery, Aspen, CO.
2004 Chandler Fine Art, Solo Show, San Francisco, CA.
2003 LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2003 Magnifico Gallery, invitational, Albuquerque, NM
2002 Solo Show, Lewallen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2001 Solo Show, Museum West Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2000 Solo Show Coleman Gallery, ALBQ, NM
2000 Occasions by Design Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1999 The Gallery Building Gallery, Waterloo IA
1997 Museum of Fine Art, National Juried exhibition, Helena, MO.
1995 Magnifico Gallery, Juried exhibition, ALBQ, NM
Collections
Private collections throughout the United States and in Tokyo, Japan
Venetian Hotels in Las Vegas and Macao,China
Publications
2013 San Francisco Chronicle, show at Chandler Fine Art is reviewed by Kenneth Baker
2012 House and Gardens Aug, 20
2012 Luxe. interiors and Design summer issue
2012 IQ Magazine interview
2012 catalogue "NM Show Case" juried show by Peter Frank ALBQ, NM
2010 Santa Fe Reporter, Santa Fe, NM
2005 Catalogue, "Arts in Embassies" show, Vatican City
2005 The Magazine, Santa Fe, NM
2004 West Coast Gallery Guide, San Francisco, CA
2003 The Collectors Guide, Santa Fe, NM
2001 West Coast Gallery Guide, San Francisco , CA
2000 The Santa Fean, Santa Fe, NM