Margie Livingston

RECENT EVENTS:

Bumbershoot Commissions Work
I’m super excited to let you know that my work — Giant Puddle —  will be installed at  the bottom of the Pacific Science Center’s reflecting pool, which has been drained for repairs. The painting is a reflection (pun intended!) of my painting process, a nod to the draining of the reflecting pools, and a little wink to Bumbershoot itself. Plus, the puddle ties in nicely with Seattle’s reputation for rain.

Bumbershoot
August 31-September 1

The Frye Art Museum Acquires Work
I’m honored and excited to announce that the collectors Cathy and Michael Casteel have gifted my 2011 work Study for 2×4 with Yellow Fill to the Frye Art Museum.

This work is one of my Paint Objects, which blur the line between painting and sculpture, while inviting questions about representation and abstraction, about formal issues like color and surface, and about how paint changes over time.

Recent Acquisitions, an exhibition opening at the Frye in the Fall, will include Study for 2X4 with Yellow Fill. The show will be on view September 28, 2024–June 1, 2025.

Recology Artist in Residence
I’m thrilled to be selected as one of two artists in residence at Recology, the recycling company. For four months, Kalina Winska and I will make new work with items scavenged from the Recology Materials Recovery Facility, the North Transfer Station, and the Recology Stores.

Recology AIR Exhibition
September 6-14
Mutuus Studio
6118 12th Ave S, Seattle
Stay tuned for details.

Flux
Greg Kucera Gallery
May 16 – June 29, 2024
Reception June 6, 2024
6 – 8 PM
Artist’s talk Saturday, June 8, 2024
12PM

This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and 4Culture.

4Culture

SOIL Auction
SOIL
April 3–30, 2022

Left Turn
Greg Kucera Gallery
February 17 – April 2, 2022
Artist’s talk Saturday, March 5, 2022

SOIL Auction
SOIL
April 3–30, 2022

The Earth is a Brush
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
January 11 – February 22, 2020

Group Exhibition
I’ve got a good mind to give up living and go shopping instead
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
July 13 – August 17, 2019

Extreme Landscape Painting
Greg Kucera Gallery
November 1 – December 22, 2018
Funded in part by a grant from 4Culture
4Culture

Circumambulation: Launceston
I dragged paintings, created an exhibition, and collaborated with Luke Reid, a Tasmanian videographer, on a new video at MOFO, a music festival sponsored by MONA in Tasmania in January 2019! Brian Ritchie, of the Violent Femmes, if I may name drop for a minute, is the festival curator and invited me to be part artist in residence after seeing my video at the Seattle Art Museum.

January 17 – February 2, 2019
Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, Tasmania

RECENT NEWS:

October 2019

I’m honored and thrilled to let you know I was awarded a fellowship for a month-long residency at the Vermont Studio Center.

RECENT PRESS:

Jasmyne Keimig/The Stranger
Livingston Dragged Her New Paintings Facedown Through Downtown Bellevue
“There is something powerful, almost spiritual, about her work.”

Brangian Davis/Crosscut
In Seattle galleries, art meets climate change
“There is something penitent about this process”

Amanda Manitach/City Arts
“Margie Livingston’s newest work is nonpareil”
I’m so sorry City Arts is gone!

City Arts

Amanda Manitach/City Arts
Sketchbook Porn: Margie Livingston Sketches with Earth
“Margie Livingston is a Seattle icon”

Erin Langer/Two Coats of Paint
Facing reality: The Seattle Art Fair

Carolina A. Miranda/The LA Times
Part penance, part performance, these actions leave behind a work that is as much a wall hanging as it is evidence of something darkly destructive.
Los Angeles Times, “Margie Livingston, Holding it together”

Essence Harden/ SFAQ (San Francisco Art Quarterly)
Mistaken Binding: Margie Livingston’s Holding it together

The dutiful trek that Livingston carried out is remarked upon in the canvas’s blistering and splintering skin. Here, endurance and the capacity to be held together are recorded as a bruising and rupturing emblem of the exhausted body.
SFAQ (San Francisco Art Quarterly), “Mistaken Binding: Margie Livingston’s Holding it Together”

Jen Graves/The Stranger Slog > Blog
Why Is Margie Livingston Dragging Her Painting Behind Her?

The Seattle painter Margie Livingston has a show coming up at Luis De Jesus Gallery in LA called Holding it together, in which she deploys her dry sense of humor. She harnessed stretched canvases to herself using a contraption she sewed based on bodybuilder harnesses. Then she set out on the streets. (Did you see her? Did you think you might be dreaming?) more >

Two Shelves>Blog
Interview with David Strand

David Strand: While the primary focus of your practice has been the materiality of acrylic paint, for your upcoming exhibition at Two Shelves, you choose to work with a brand-new material. How did you come across this material and what do you find compelling about it?
Margie Livingston: I found this big bag of black, polyester-nylon fabric in the dumpster… more >

New American Paintings>Blog
Alchemy Of Paint: A Studio Visit With Margie Livingston And Isaac Quigley

“Margie Livingston (NAP #61) has spent the last couple of years pouring, compacting and carving paint. Her experimentation with the limit of paint’s sculptural malleability has culminated in a (still-evolving) process by which she manufactures sheets of marbled, plastic acrylic that are later rolled, folded and cut into a number of forms, often posts or logs.”

Geoff Tuck/Notes on Looking: Contemporary Art in Los Angeles>Blog
A few words and images: Margie Livingston at LACE

“…back also to those brush strokes. The way that Margie Livingston uses them in this LACE installation they are objects unto themselves.”

Erin Langner/New American Paintings>Blog
Artist Vs: Studio: Margie Livingston

“Moving through her space, from entrance to window, Livingston’s studio offers an unconsciously structured progression of her approach to painting, beginning with the most theoretical objects and ending with the most physical.'”

Jeannie R. Lee/ArtScene
Margie Livingston

“My favorites though are Livingston’s folded paintings. Lengths of dried paint skin are neatly folded and left sitting in piles. The simple domestic act of folding these swaths of marbled color allows the object to flux elegantly between finished product and waiting-to-be-used resource'”

 

Gavin Borchert/Seattle Magazine
THE BEST BETS FOR ENTERTAINMENT THIS MONTH
“One of her most outré processes”

Martha Duhnam/ÆQAI
Margie Livingston at Greg Kucera Gallery
“Calling to mind the way we are ground down by the process of living”

Matthew Kangas/Visual Art Source
“Continues to re-invent the nature of painting

Jasmyne Keimig/The Stranger
Margie Livingston: Extreme Landscape Painting
“This isn’t your grandma’s landscape painting”

Emily Nimptsch/YAY! LA
Artist Spotlight: Margie Livingston
The most arresting work in this collection is her performative dragged painting. Taking inspiration from both Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings and Jesus Christ’s Procession of the Calvary, the artist straps an over-sized canvas to her back and “takes it for a walk.” Gathering grime and the bewildered glares passersby, Livingston accepts this shame and weigh.
YAY! LA, “Artist Spotlight: Margie Livingston”

Sharon Butler/Two Coats of Paint
Quick Study

Elizabeth Brown/ Surface Design Journal
Textile Point of View

In these fiber origins, she pays homage to female forebears: her grandmother, who wove textiles on her own loom; her mother, who made her own clothes; her aunt, an avid quilter. Yet Livingston began as a painter and came to prominence with gestural canvases evoking Abstract Expressionists like Joan Mitchell.

Bill Lasarow/The Huffington Post
“Art Lessons of Tucson”
“Regarding Margie Livingston’s objects constructed from acrylic paint, Jeannie R. Lee says that they ‘started with a hairball.'”

Rosemary Ponnekanti/The News Tribune
“Margie Livingston’s paint, though, climbs out of the wall like it’s always lived there”
Review of “Marked” and “Painted Remarks” in the Tacoma News Tribune

Gayle Clemans/The Seattle Times:
“‘Show of Hands’ offers plenty of substance at the hands of the Northwest’s female artists”

Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Art, Whatcom Museum: “Every so often, an art critic claims that ‘painting is dead,’ that it can’t be pushed any further—there’s nothing new to explore. Livingston’s work says otherwise, both in the way she experiments with paint and the compositions that result.”
PDF PDF

Jen Graves/The Stranger:
“Yes, Livingston’s wearing her debts on her sleeve in these new works, but let’s see where she’s going.”

Regina Hackett: “She uses it to dissect her representations, to pool her resources and to chart a lyrical course through light, space, form and time.”

Joey Veltkamp:
“…it’s quite a small group of folks who have won both the Betty Bowen and the Neddy
http://joeyveltkamp.blogspot.com/2010/04/margie-livingston-2010-neddy-artist.html
“I went to Margie Livingston’s talk yesterday (along with about 50 other folks!)” http://joeyveltkamp.blogspot.com/2009/12/margie-livingston-artist-talk.html
“And what began as a happy accident (as much great art does), has now been developed into a really interesting new body of 3-D work.”
http://joeyveltkamp.blogspot.com/2009/11/margie-livingston-and-akio-takamori.html

Ryan Molenkamp: “Call them painting sculptures, sculptural paintings, paint installations… call them what you will, they are delightful and interesting to look at, which is no easy thing. Check it out.”

Susanna Bluhm: “It’s as though the paint has been forced from the canvas into “room air” and must now be on life support in order to survive. In her hands, and in this space, it’s not only surviving– it’s thriving.”

Jason Lahr, Curator, South Bend Museum of Art, wall text for Surface Tension:
“Margie Livingston makes paintings (or are they sculptures?) that form a paradox. Presented as objects but crafted from acrylic paint, Livingston plays fast and loose with the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Simultaneously, these works reflect a literal disassembly of the surface of abstract painting as well as a wry reinvention of Abstract Expressionism’s fixation on paint as material”

Suzanne Beal/Visual Art Source:
“Northwest artist Margie Livingston has long been admired for her paintings of objects from the natural world. But in “Riff: New Paintings” she proves she’s a sculptor as well— albeit a sculptor of paint.”

PAST EVENTS:

Extreme Landscape Painting

Greg Kucera Gallery
November 1 – December 22, 2018
Funded in part by a grant from 4Culture
4Culture

Artel
A participatory performance
University of Washington Jacob Lawrence Gallery
December 9, 2017

New Dimension
Irvine Fine Arts Center
November 19, 2016 – January 21, 2017

SOIL in Miami Beach
SATELLITE 2.0
December 1–4, 2016

Too Soon for Hindsight 
Greg Kucera Gallery
July 7 – August 20, 2016

Holding it Together
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

April 23 – May 28, 2016

SOIL
Stratum
January 7–30, 2016

Artist-Run at The Satellite Show Miami Beach
Curated by Tiger Strikes Asteroid
December 1–6, 2015

APEX: Margie Livingston
Portland Art Museum
July 25 – November 15, 2015

The Momentum of Beauty
SOIL, Seattle
December 4–27, 2014

Untitled.2014 Art Fair, Miami Beach
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Booth B10
December 3–7, 2014

Poured, Sliced, and Draped
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
May 22 – June 28, 2014

Equipollent: The Artists of Inside Art 2013
Standing Visit Projects
301 Storefront Gallery, Seattle
December 5–21, 2013

BAM Biennial 2012: High Fiber Diet
Bellevue Arts Museum
Bellevue, Washington
October 25, 2012 – February 24, 2013

Margie Livingston: Paint Objects
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
October 4 – November 10, 2012
Supported in part by a 4Culture Individual Artist Project Grant and a CityArtist Project grant from the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
4Culture and the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture

Artist’s Talk
Garfield High School, Seattle
May 18, 2012

Margie Livingston: Twenty Gallons
LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
June 16, 2011 – March 25, 2013

Pulse Miami
Showing with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles,
Booth B-102
December 1–4, 2011

The Three-Dimensional Line: volume, scale, illusion, emotion
Kirkland Art Center
April 16 – May 26, 2011
Opening reception Friday, April 15, 2011, 6–8:30 PM

Repertoire
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago
February 18 – April 30, 2011
Opening reception February 18, 2011, 6–8pm

Paint Objects
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
January 22 – February 26, 2011

Marked: Susan Dory, Michelle Grabner, and Margie Livingston
Curated by Elise Richman
January 17 – February 26, 2011
Kittredge Gallery

Kittredge Hall, University of Puget Sound

Honoring 15 Years of Neddy Artist Fellows
Tacoma Art Museum
June 5 – August 22, 2010
Tacoma, WA

SOIL in Residence
Seattle Design Center
March 14 – May 28, 2010
Seattle, WA

Shenzhen Fine Art Institute

August 18–28, 2008
Shenzhen, China

Jacob Lawrence Gallery

University of Washington
January 2009
Seattle, WA

ArtTalk Series
Gage Academy
November 8, 2007
Seattle, WA

Public Dialogues with Artists and Mathematicians
Shift Gallery
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Seattle, WA

Aqua Art Miami Beach
December 7–10, 2006
Miami Beach, Florida

All in the Painted View
Museum of Northwest Art
July 15 – October 8, 2006
La Conner, WA

Archer Gallery
September 19 – October 22, 2006
Clark College, Vancouver, WA

UW School of Art Alumni Award Exhibition
Jacob Lawrence Gallery
October 25 – November 12, 2005
University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Northwest Biennial: Buildingwise
Curated by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Tacoma Art Museum
April 17 – August 29, 2004
Tacoma, WA

The Last Judgment Project
Bumbershoot Arts Festival
August 26 – September 1, 2003
Seattle, WA

An Introduction
Greg Kucera Gallery
January 8 – February 29, 2004
Seattle, WA

Circumambulation
A participatory performance
Genesee Park
August 25, 2018
In conjunction with Outer Space

The Henry Art Gallery acquired Crumpled White Painting on a Shelf, 2014.
Crumpled White Painting on a Shelf

American Painting Today
V2 (the old Value Village space)
December 8 & 17, 2016

What’s New at TAM? Recent Gifts to the Collection 
Tacoma Art Museum
February 6 – September 18, 2016

Two Shelves
January 14, 2016

OCAC Artist-In-Residence Exhibition
Hoffman Gallery, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland
December 4, 2014 – January 27, 2015

Pulse Art Fair, Miami Beach
Greg Kucera Gallery, Booth D3
December 3–7, 2014

Expanding on an expansive subject, Part 1: Margie Livingston, Paint as canvas
Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles
July 13 – August 31, 2014

VOLTA NY with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
March 6–9, 2014

Objectified
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
October 19 – November 23, 2013

Chamber Music
Frye Art Museum
Seattle, Washington
February 9 – May 5, 2013

Residency.ch
International Artists in Bern

Bern, Switzerland
April 15 – May 15, 2012

Matter in Transit
Kunstruimte 09
Groningen, The Netherlands
(“Kunstruimte” is Dutch for art space)
April 1 –May 5, 2012

Borders
Confluence Gallery
Twisp, Washington
February 25 – April 14, 2012

Art Miami
Showing with Greg Kucera, Booth B-12; and with Zolla/Lieberman, Booth C-11
November 30 – December 4, 2011

Aqua Art Miami
Showing with SOIL, Room 226
December 1–4, 2011

POD installation: Remains
National Performance Network/Visual Artists Networkannual meeting
Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa
December 8–12, 2011

LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
Benefit Art Auction
May 19, 2011

Bloom & Collapse
SOIL
, Seattle
February 2–26, 2011

Panel Discussion: What is Innovation in the Arts?
December 10, 2010, 6–8pm
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle

Surface Tension
South Bend Museum of Art
October 2, 2010 – January 8, 2011
South Bend, IN

Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists 1880-2010
Whatcom Museum
April 24 – August 8, 2010
Bellingham, WA

Riff: New Paintings
Greg Kucera Gallery
November 19 – December 24, 2009
Seattle, WA

Aqua Art Miami

December 4–7, 2008
Miami Beach, Florida

Art Miami
December 5–9, 2007
Wynwood Art District, Miami, FL

Richard Levy Gallery
July 20 – August 31, 2007
Albuquerque, NM

Hybrid
Greg Kucera Gallery
March 15 – April 28, 2007

Seattle, WA

The Flattening and Opening of Space
In collaboration with Carrie Bodle
New Works Laboratory, 911 Media Arts Center
September 12 – October 27, 2006
Seattle, WA

Exploded View
SOIL
August 3–27, 2006
Seattle, WA

SOIL 1995-2005: A Retrospective
SOIL
October 6–30, 2005
Seattle, WA

The Structure Paintings
Greg Kucera Gallery
April 7 – May 14, 2005
Seattle, WA

Fulbright Project
I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to work in Germany from September 2001 through July 2002. More…