MARGRIT NEWMAN “50 pieces and 50 years” | May 9th – 18th, 2019

MARGRIT NEWMAN “50 pieces and 50 years” | May 9th – 18th, 2019

Opening reception: Thursday, May 9th, 2019, 6-9 pm

Artist Talk: Friday May 10th, 2019 6pm-8pm – (moderator: Jill Cliffer Baratta, NAWA President)

International visual artist, Margrit Newman, is pleased to announce “50 pieces and 50 years” her solo art exhibition, which will include 50 select pieces of her work that Newman created over the past 50 years. Born in Switzerland, Newman has spent her life traveling the world and residing at various periods of her life in Switzerland, France, New York City and Argentina. Her worldly experiences over the last five decades have served as inspiration for her new eclectic collection, whose themes include: miniature boxes, musical composition paintings, voodoo, and plant boxes and acrylic paintings with photos incorporated.

Newman attributes her nine years at Galerie Beyeler in Basel/Switzerland, where she met and interacted with world-renowned artists:  Giacometti, Henry Moore, Joan Miro, Mark Tobey and many more, for her deep love and inspiration for art.

What has fascinated Margrit as an artist is a limit we draw between reality and abstraction. “This line is very thin, almost non-existent,” she says. Margrit believes that in order to better perceive reality, we need to confront it with some kind of abstraction–hers being art. Her work brilliantly illustrates the juxtaposition between the two worlds. Through her work, Margrit is constantly pushing boundaries and exploring different types of art to make us aware of this intricate duality. For instance, Margrit has photographed a wall made of rusted corrugated iron plates in Chile, an abandoned barn’s door in Montana and basalt walls in Iceland, to name a few subjects. She then creates a new, abstract reality for these objects and places, inspired by her imagination.

Reality may then become magical a doorway to many possible abstract worlds. In the next phase of her work, Margrit became more interested in mysterious powers and supernatural elements that we cannot explain yet. She worked on a series of voodoo dolls, using different textures (rags, bark, etc.) and added various objects (seeds, mirrors, tools) harkening to the supernatural powers of objects that shamans or voodoo priests sought to harness. Margrit feels these forces are at work in our everyday life but remain mostly untapped.

Newman’s art has been exhibited in galleries worldwide including Opera Gallery in New York, American Institute of Architecture in  Albuquerque/New Mexico, Musee de Saint Paul de Vence in France, Galerie Mara in Fribourg/Switzerland and Lumley Cazalet Gallery in London/England. She has published three books of her work throughout her life-long career in the art world. With each piece, Margrit helps us see that we have the power to transform everyday images and objects into something meaningful and magical, unstained by banality.