Margaret Griffith
Los Angeles, CA
Margaret Griffith is a visual artist based in Los Angeles. Griffith creates largely abstract installations, sculptures, public art, and works on paper.
Message
Margaret Griffith is a visual artist based in Los Angeles. Griffith’s largely abstract installations, sculptures, public art, and works on paper explore both the physical presence and psychological manifestations of boundaries and barriers found in the built environment. Griffith frequently uses paper and sheet metal as sculptural material.
She received her BFA in Painting from Maryland Institute, College of ARt and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Sculpture. Griffith has shown at PrjctLA, Western Project, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Jancar Gallery, Carl Berg Gallery, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NY, Long Beach Museum, Long Beach, Occidental College, Diverse Works, Houston, TX, Vertigo Art Space, Denver, Colorado, The Los Angeles International Airport, the Museo Archeologico di Amelia, Amelia (TERNI), Italy, and many other institutions and galleries. Griffith is a 2023-24 recipient of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Trailblazer Grant, the 2017 recipient of the Davyd Whaley Mid-Artist Career Grant and a 2018 nominee for the Fellows of Contemporary Art Fellowship in Los Angeles, CA.
Statement
My work takes on a variety of forms, as installation, sculpture and drawing. Some of the pieces I make are created to exist in site-specific locations, which reveal a critical relationship between form and place; fragility and stability.
These nuanced relationships appear in the architectural forms where I live and beyond, finding their way into my work, from the residential wrought iron gates of Los Angeles to the gates surrounding The White House. I think of myself as an urban scavenger, searching for interesting patterns and architectural clues that inform my surroundings and find deeper connections with the sites I inhabit or experience- in an effort to visually break down pre-existing boundaries.
The concept of impermanence found in Eastern philosophy resonates with me and is a thematic thread in my work. To this I find additional layers of meaning through metaphorical and antithetical implications in architectural structures. For example, the gate acts as a boundary or barrier while also representing security, peace, fear and isolation. In 2011, I began photographing residential front gates found in my Los Angeles neighborhood and transforming the images into life-size, hand cut paper and water-jet cut metal replicas. Having my own gate built and installed, I noticed so many others around me and how they physically and visually divided the community, while representing a false sense of security and permanence. They could also be so personal--some beautiful, gaudy, simple or ornate; others with initials, images of palm trees, horses, etc. As we are living in a highly contested and divisive political climate today my focus also extends beyond my immediate surroundings, using patterns derived from historical and political landmarks as symbolic of privilege and power.
Working mainly with paper and sheet metal, the fragility of paper used to represent a chain link or steel gate is important, as well as the rigidity of metal that is then folded, curled and bent into organic and billowy forms. Similarly, paper is thin, delicate, and versatile and has an inherent intimacy. We all have established relationships with paper, whether through drawing, printing, cutting, pasting or writing. Metal, on the other hand, has a distinct association with heaviness, reliability and structural integrity that is challenged through water jet cutting and manipulation.
My trajectory continues in the thematic direction of permanence as fiction-- the paper and metal forms serve as monuments to fragility and impermanence, while change, instability, prospect and emptiness flourish in our urban landscape.