Painting directly on the wall, Kilgallen creates room-size murals that recall a time when personal craft and handmade signs were the dominant aesthetic During Margaret Kilgallen’s childhood, frequent family trips to western Maryland taught her great appreciation for Amish craftsmanship in quilting, furniture making, and sign painting-and the philosophy behind it.

As a result, said the artist, “I have always had an admiration for things that are well made, or not even well made. What you have to make in order to live.” On these trips Kilgallen was also exposed to “white, white country people” whose fiddle and banjo contests, craft fairs, and auctions showed her a way of life that fueled an ongoing curiosity about folk traditions, especially old-time music, its history, and how that history is at the heart of the history of the United States.

Her work has been shown at Deitch Projects and the Drawing Room in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Luggage Store in San Francisco, the Forum for Contemporary Art in St. Louis, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Margaret Kilgallen: In the Sweet Bye & Bye
Date: June 16th – August 21st, 2005
Place: Redcat Gallery
Address: 631 W. 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Tel: +1 213 237 2800
https://www.redcat.org