On View: September 13 – November 10, 2019
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG) welcomes award–winning artist Martha Clippinger to show her most recent series of mixed-media works in Translations.
The largest works, her tapetes – the Spanish word for “rug” – are made with weavers from Oaxaca, Mexico. Similar to the way Isaiah Zagar has collaborated with Mexican folk artists for over five decades, Clippinger leaves designs with her longtime artistic partners Licha Gonzalez Ruiz and Agustin Contreras Lopez to then interpret in their style. The finished works are a blend of contemporary ideas and cultural traditions, breaking down barriers between craft and fine art to exemplify the power of collaboration to produce something that neither artist could create on their own. Other pieces in this exhibition range from ceramics to repurposed wood to quilts made from reclaimed materials, all of which express her deep connection to the resources used.
Born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, Martha Clippinger received a BA from Fordham University and an MFA from Mason Gross School of Art, Rutgers University. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a 2017 Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grant from the Durham Arts Council, a 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award, and a 2013 Fulbright-Garcia Robles research grant completed in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has been a fellow at the Sam and Adele Golden Art Foundation, Artspace, MacDowell Colony, Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation. Her work has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and The Huffington Post, and is in the public collections of The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art and The Columbus Museum. Clippinger is represented by Elizabeth Harris Gallery in New York and was the 2018 Arts and Industry Resident at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Clippinger lives and works in Durham, North Carolina.
