PAINTINGS INFLUENCED BY THE CONCEPT GENIUS LOCI, MEDITATION, AND HEALING ON DISPLAY AT WEINBERGER FINE ART
VIP COCKTAIL RECEPTION THURSDAY, SEPT 1ST 5-8 PM
Margaret Evangeline in her studio with her dog, Voltaire
Weinberger Fine Art is excited to announce the upcoming exhibition, MARGARET EVANGELINE | IN BEAUTY THERE IS GUILT. Join the artist at Weinberger Fine Art for a special VIP cocktail reception and book signing on Thursday, September 1st from 5-8pm. The event will be catered with food inspired by the artist with a performance by cellist David Downing. This is a free event. For more information about the artist and the gallery, visit www.weinbergerfineart.com.
This exhibition highlights new, large-scale abstract paintings recently curated from Margaret Evangeline’sstudio in New York City. A piece titled “Terra Firma” is completed in shades of grey with waves upon waves that drip and overlap with each other. Other paintings highlight black outlines of camellias over the waves. The artist uses “mending gestures” while painting with crystallina - a pigment that sparkles - suggesting a preciousness and references kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken objects with gold. The paintings in this exhibition convey a practice of meditation in both their creation and in perspective.
Working abstractly, Evangeline allows the viewer their own entry into and interpretation of her work. However, Evangeline’sconcepts and personal associations offer a key to further meaning and insight to the imagery. Concepts of location, healing, meditation, and history influence her paintings. Subjects such as the camellia flower link Evangeline to New Orleans and brings to mind mandalas. Water plays an important role in the artist’s work; the rivers that have surrounded her have become a character or voice in her paintings. In Louisiana, Evangeline was greatly impacted by the water in surrounding the New Orleans landscape. Eventually, the artist moved her studio to New York City and again found herself aligning to another great river, the Hudson.
Another important concept behind Evangeline’s work is genius loci or the “indwelling spirit of place” that influences every piece either in its creation or through subject matter. Her work is filtered through a personal history often in association to a specific location. The idea of genius loci, in other words the power, energy and history of place, is present in the city she lives in, the studio she works in, and even in the tools she uses. It is a concept affecting her work from creation to final object. Beyond genius loci, Evangeline incorporates the irony of the connection and pull of opposites: destruction/creation, life/death, aggression/peace, etc. Through this practice Evangeline allows her work to become a playground for alternating energies and perspectives.
Margaret Evangeline received her MFA from the University of New Orleans in 1978 and has an impressive resume; she has been consistently featured in solo exhibitions as well as creating site-specific installations in addition to winning numerous awards and residencies including the New York Foundation the for Arts Painting Fellowship, a grant recipient for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation of New York, and as an Art Omi Artist Residency Board Member and former resident. Her body of work ranges from photography, sculpture, performance, video, and painting.
Weinberger Fine Art will have copies available of the book, Margaret Evangeline, which is a comprehensive study of the artist’s processes and work. Evangeline will be available for book signing at the VIP cocktail reception on Thursday, September 1st from 5-8pm.
For further questions regarding the exhibition MARGARET EVANGELINE | IN BEAUTY THERE IS GUILT, the VIP Reception, or artist please contact the gallery. PH. 816-301-4428 or email courtney@weinbergerfineart.com
