Margaret Garcia, Artist
Los Angeles, CA
PRACTICE:
Margaret’s art practice spans over four decades as a self-supporting, practicing artist. Her practice is the fusion of her life and art – expressed by her deep understanding of her surroundings (Landscapes), her family and history (Culture) and her friends and her art world (Community). Margaret is a painter in oils and pastels, muralist, glass artist and teacher. She developed and coordinates Creating Cultural Currency, a pair of long-running, multi-artist projects that includes The Stamp Project (a collaborative print project coordinating over 100 artists from Southern California and as far away as New York, Israel, Chiapas Mexico, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Harlingen and El Paso, Texas) and the Toy Project that teaches the art and construction of home-made, natural material toys and instruments. Margaret teaches oil painting at Plaza de la Raza as well mentors at her long-running Wednesday evening oil painting workshops.
Margaret’s major public art includes the Los Angeles Metro Subway Station at Universal City/Campo de Cahuenga and various murals in Los Angeles.
Margaret will be honored with a solo show by the Museum of Ventura County in November 2021.
EDUCATION:
USC School of Fine Art Graduate Program
Los Angeles Community College - Creative writing
California State University Northridge - Two years undergraduate work
Roosevelt High School, Los Angeles
AWARDS:
2019 EASTSIDE INITATIVE (Los Angeles) – Toy Project
2013-15 NEA OUR TOWN, Watts, Artistic Project Manager
2006 COLA AWARD, City of Los Angeles
2005 GETTY AWARD in Visual Art
CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL, Artist in Residence
1994 DESIGN AWARD, Southern California Society of Architects.
1993 LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY VISUAL ARTS
1989 FEITELSON- LUNDEBERG AWARD, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
BRODY FELLOWSHIP in Visual Arts
CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL, Artist in Residence
EXHIBITIONS AND COLLECTIONS:
Margaret’s work has been exhibited and collected throughout California and the Southwestern United States, New York, Washington D.C., Bordeaux France, Quito Ecuador and Mexico at institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum, DeYoung Museum San Francisco, University of Texas Austin and San Antonio, U.C. Santa Barbara, U.C. Channel Islands, Museum of Ventura County, Santa Paula Art Museum. Margaret’s work has also been collected by numerous private individuals.