ARTIST
“The canvas is not a space to reproduce but rather an arena in which to act. What goes on the canvas is not a picture but an event.”
ARTIST BIO
Margaret Rinkevich has been dedicated to the arts and has taught art history to university students and museum docents. She holds a B.A. in art history from the University of Arizona, where she specialized in the art of the Italian Renaissance. There she participated in two archaeological excavations in Umbria, Italy, and later taught European art history at Northern Arizona University. She also worked at contemporary art galleries in Santa Fe, NM and is the author of several publications about tribal art and culture.
While living in San Francisco, CA, Margaret volunteered at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and wrote about numerous traditional tribal African objects for the collection in Highlights from a Decade of Collecting (2009). Additionally, she assisted with docent education, research on acquisitions and composed didactic material for objects on display in the African galleries. In 2012 she authored an article for TRIBAL Magazine entitled “Seeing the Unseen: Visionary Aspects of Eskimo Snow Goggles”.
Margaret resides in Telluride, CO where her art is currently featured on refurbished gondola cabins in Mountain Villages’s Heritage Plaza. The Cabins at Mountain Village project was conceived to offer private dining cabins to visitors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but they have lived on and serve as unique component of the plaza.
Additionally, she participated in the local art school, Ah Haa School for the Arts, Second Annual Juried Exhibition of Regional Artists, BEST OF 2014. Further, she has contributed to The Telluride Painting School lecture series with a talk entitled, Art of the ‘So What?!’: The History of Still Life Painting. In 2016 she juried the 3rd Annual Exhibition of Regional Artists. In 2017, her solo show BLUE opened at Gallery 81435 in Telluride.
Margaret owned and operated Rinkevich Galley from 2018 to 2026 which featured her abstract paintings along with tribal sculpture. She currently serves on the Mountain Village Public Art Committee which strives to create and enhance a diverse representation of subject matter for the community.
Her work hangs in numerous private collections throughout the US.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I paint in a very extemporaneous way. Apart from my curiosity, I have nothing preplanned when I enter my studio. I value emotion, authenticity and risk. Concealed on a blank canvas are graphic forms, raw color, round and angular shapes and expressive lines waiting to surface. The suspense held within these emerging structures and their configurations is wildly compelling as is the sheer mental grind produced in their arrangement. There is something so luscious and captivating about applying paint. My work frequently starts with chaos, then as form and color develop and expand, an elusive dialog grows between all elements. I persistently step back from the canvas to analyze and ask questions. It is the enthralling process of action and discovery that produces successive layers and rich textures and reflects the multifaceted dialog.