karen margolis

I think of these compositions as intimate haiku poems, each capturing a moment in time, a feeling woven into a memory and breath. I construct an architecture for the mind, where absence meets presence and what is indefinable can be felt.

Commission for Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge, New York City

Debra Simon Art Consultant Photographer: David Plakke

In Continuum’s latest iteration, the turbulence of creation is implicit in the materials, which originate from previous artworks subjected to labor intensive processes of eradication. Retaining residual marks, rips and holes from their preceding incarnations, the destructed fragments are mended with thread. Woven together, the discrete components dissolve into clouds of color and texture. Map fragments of Amtrak stops throughout the country are stitched into the works.

Continuum was originally conceived in 2000 as a three-dimensional Mandala of the cosmos. Composed of hand-made paper laminated over wire structures and originally titled M-Theory, the installation was first exhibited in ‘PAPER’ at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001 as a blueprint of metaphysical possibilities for repairing tears in the fabric of the universe. I subsequently reconstructed the installation in my studio, layering in discarded scraps and detritus from some of my other artworks, which resulted in a more condensed form that seems to evolve from within, as if the sculpture was self-generating. The work instinctually grows and transforms with the addition of components in each new installation.

Ceramics have infiltrated my art making as a new way to explore creating form through processes of destruction. Trephinated and partial skulls consider inner journeys. Vessels composed of maps and wires unravel into themselves, suspended between form and formlessness.

‘Structural Play’ Sugar Hill Museum

March 6 through May 18, 2024

The sculptural installations of Karen Margolis explore the linked processes of creation and destruction at the heart of the cycle of life. Employing rescued and recycled materials including paper, plastic, wire and found objects, the artist accrues her materials into fantastical bio-constructions as densely layered and intensely colored as a coral reef. Often working site-specifically (her installation Continuum is currently on view as part of the Art at Amtrak public art program at Moynihan Train Hall), Margolis’s installations can appear to emerge organically from the building’s architecture, engulfing and outgrowing its underlining form. Frequently rehabilitating elements of previous sculptures in new installations, the artist’s process embraces decay and rebirth—life in all its glorious chaos and constant transformation.

Lynn Lieberman/GOTHAM

Symbolizing more than just the exterior world and composed of vascular systems and arteries, maps act as proxies for our physical selves. They personify inner journeys and states of mind. I enhance their colors and trace over roadways to augment their intrinsic structure and utility. I arbitrarily burn out cities and dislocate territories, subverting the map’s ability to communicate. As destructed maps are layered on top of each other, passages to new regions emerge and interrupted routes find new connections. Possibilities open for something new to be generated from what was lost.

A microscopic world of flora reveals itself in the indomitable spirit of a lone weed pushing its way up through a crack in the sidewalk. It is this small gesture of survival that informs my work. Walking from lower Manhattan to my studio in Gowanus, the streets have been both muse and provider, offering up ideas and materials. This installation was born during the pandemic in 2021. I dismantled previous sculptures for material to build an indoor garden that was both nature and not nature. Along with discarded maps and branches, I rescued abandoned toys along my routes and carefully placed them in their new home in my synthetic garden. It is an oasis for mending, communion and meditation.

Commission for N line, 86 Street Subway platform, Brooklyn, New York

Mosaic Glass panels

Fabricator: Mosaicos Venecianos De Mexico
Photographer: Etienne Frossard

’Cerebration’

Walking around the neighborhoods of the Sea Beach Line, I was struck by how the expanse of sky plays an integral role in the beauty of the area, creating a vivid backdrop for the diverse colors of the vicinity. In addition, I learned that fireworks displays are frequent events in the area, bonding people of all cultures in a historic pastime of enjoying spectacles of light and color. Seeing the cultural and economic diversity of the region inspired me to create work that connects people to place.

The N line connects the beach and suburbs to Manhattan. Whether commuting to Manhattan or home, subway riders are typically ‘in their heads’, united by their personal activity of thinking, remembering, planning, or perhaps, simply daydreaming. I imagine thoughts to be bursts of dynamic patterns, very much like an internal display of fireworks. To celebrate positive thoughts and memories of splendor, I merge sky and fireworks with the neural activity of contemplation, incorporating map sections of local Brooklyn neighborhoods within the vibrant bursts of color.

‘Scorched’ Art on paper Fair 2020

‘Scorched’, a public installation for the Art on Paper Fair, explores the changing landscape of both our physical and internal worlds through the arbitrariness of destruction and loss.

Constructions/Containments comprised of cotton-covered wire are rolled into individual components, hand colored in batches and pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle to build up successive growth layers. Originally formed as columns, the works slumped over in fatigue. Through cycles of dismantling and reconstructing, sculptures are resuscitated into hybrid forms.

In situ is created from the process of painting the wire components and setting them to dry on transparent polyester film. Residual paint from the drying process leaves an imprint on the film. Like a sonogram of my fetal creations, in situ generates an image of the developing constructions.

‘Population’ Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts

2001

Distinction between positive and negative space is blurred as sculpture, shadows and illusion merge in the viewer’s perception.

Light cast upon suspended tulle cubes produces confusion between the transparent, ethereal cubes and their shadow images, which appear more solid than the cubes themselves. Illustrations of shadows as well as blank sheets of paper that reflect actual shadows continue the dialogue between dimensions.