Karen Margolis

“I assemble sculptural installations from the dismembered remains of older artworks. The turbulence of creation is implicit in the materials, which are subjected to labor intensive processes of eradication. Retaining residual marks, rips and holes from their preceding incarnations, the fragments are woven into forms that dissolve into nebulous clouds of color and texture. My process is both destructive and rehabilitative, involving deforming, unraveling and burning maps and wires into damaged parts that I repair with thread and regenerate with vibrant colors. Teetering between growth and disintegration, the constructions are like life, messy and chaotic in a constant state of transition.

There is a richly embroidered understory that comes with making something and then unmaking it. The act of destructing in order to create is fully embedded in my process and part of what my work speaks to in the beauty of imperfection and impermanence. I see the fragment as an interrupted story. Broken forms enable a way in, to be submerged inside what is typically concealed. Centering on what is erased and covered over, the works are loud and quiet at the same time, empowered through color emerging from interior darkness.”

**Karen Margolis,** **Structural Play**
Courtesy of the artist

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Karen Margolis is a conceptually based, process driven artist experimenting with structure, form and materiality that blur boundaries between interior and exterior worlds and allude to states of transition. In 2023 Margolis completed a public installation for Amtrak’s Metropolitan Lounge in Moynihan Train Hall, New York City. Additionally, in 2023, she was commissioned to create a series of sculptural paintings for a Science/Life complex in Boston and large scale works on paper for a Science Building in New York City. Margolis constructed a public art installation for the 2020 Art on Paper Fair. In 2018 she designed a series of mosaic panels for the 86 Street subway station, N Line in Brooklyn, NY through MTA Arts in Transit. Recent solo gallery exhibitions include 490 Atlantic Gallery in Brooklyn in 2022, Foley Gallery, New York and K. Imperial Fine Arts, San Francisco in 2019 and Garis & Hahn, Los Angeles in 2018. Her work was included in the “Cut up/Cut out" exhibition, traveling to regional museums throughout the United States from 2016 through 2021. Margolis’ work was featured in the Paper Biennial at the Rijswijk Museum in the Netherlands in 2016 and additionally in solo exhibitions at Bridgewater University, MA, Salon Zurcher, Paris and in collaboration with M Missoni, New York City through Garis & Hahn. Prior exhibitions include, Rockland Center for the Arts, The Hunterdon Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Fine Arts Center of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Parrish Art Museum and The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art. Margolis received a workspace residency at Dieu Donne Papermill and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Residing in New York City, she received a BS in Psychology and certificate in Microscopy. Her work is represented internationally in private and public collections.