Film-inspired Chicago artist exhibits work in Ferguson Art Gallery
1/18/2011
Chicago artist Margaret Buchen brings her collection of acrylic paintings, monotypes and drawings inspired by silent films, classic films and popular culture to the Ferguson Art Gallery at Concordia University Chicago in celebration of Women’s History Month.
Buchen’s “New Works” will be exhibited Feb. 21-March 20 at the gallery on Concordia’s campus in River Forester. An artist’s reception will be held 2-4 p.m. Feb. 27. Buchen, a Chicago resident, will give a special artist’s gallery talk at 7 p.m. on March 2.
An adjunct instructor at Harper College and Art Curator for the Harper College Educational Foundation Art Collection, Buchen has exhibited her work in more than 50 exhibitions internationally in Glasgow, Scotland and across the nation including Chicago, Washington and California.
Buchen uses watercolors, acrylic and oil painting; drawing with pencil, oil, pastel, chalk pastel and color pencils screenprint monotype and digital print output to create her work.
“My recent work takes inspiration from silent movies, classic American movies and certain elements of popular culture,” said Buchen. “As an avid viewer of movies, I am constantly fascinated by the way the moving image creates a narrative and conveys visual information.
This conveyance of information is so complex and varied that I want to stop the moving picture and observe it more completely. I am compelled to make these still pictures, to play with the rich visual effects I observe.”
In 1999, Buchen was the recipient of both a Project Assistance Grant from the Illinois Arts Council and a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Her work is included in the University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach public collection, and in private collections.