MARGO PELLETIER
Margo Pelletier (1951- 2016) was a post-queer artist whose work continually pushed societal boundaries of exclusion to reveal beauty in the seemingly ordinary. She worked in a variety of media: painting, sculpture, print-making, sound, installation and film.
Born in Bangor, Maine in 1951, Margo’s creativity was rewarded from an early age. She cited Corita Kent and Andy Warhol as her earliest artistic influences.
Nan Goldin, My Hand on Margo’s Face, 1974
LIFE
1978
Exhibits window paintings in Group 13 Invitational, New Britain Museum, New Britain, CT.
1979
1971
1951
Studies one semester at The Boston Museum School of Fine Arts .where she meets photographer Nan Goldin.
Receives a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to carry out a project painting the view through windows in historic buildings including the Hartford Civic Center and Harriet Beecher Stowe House (with its view of the home of Mark Twain).
Born Bangor, Maine
1974
1976
Helps found Hartford’s “Asylum Hill Artists Cooperative.”
Studies with Jacqueline Gourevitch at Hartford Art School and begins painting from observation.
Moves to Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Joins the May 19th Communist Organization in Brooklyn, New York .
Joins the Madame Bihn Graphics Collective, propaganda arm of the May 19th organization.
1990
Shows work in Witnesses Against Our Vanishing, Artists' Space New York, New York.
Charcoal Drawing “Today,” appears in January 1990 ArtNews review of “Witnesses.”
Shows in: solo show, Bargeron Gallery, Washington Crossing, PA;
Outrageous Desire, 5th annual Lesbian & Gay Studies Conference, Rutgers University; NJ Out Art, St. Lawrence University, Canton NY. curated by Nan Goldin; Outstanding New Artists, curated by Al Loving, Artsphere, New York, NY.
Receives a $7,000 small business loan from Jersey City Economic Development to buy out a small fine arts silk screens shop.
Opens Colorgirls, a fine arts silk screen atelier at 111 1st Street creating prints for Bob Blackburn of the Print Making Workshop among others.
Co-founds Progressive Culture Works with Nancy Mahl. An artist’s organization that manages a 4,000 square foot space dedicated to multi-disciplinary shows featuring 30-50 artists, poets, playwrights and academics.
1991
Shows work in “From Desire: A Queer Diary,” Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY curated by Nan Goldin.
March 29 – April 19, 1991 Exhibits in “Margot Pelletier & Marjorie Van Dyke,” Progressive Culture Works, Jersey City, NJ
Exhibits in “Cannibalism,” Progressive Culture Works, Jersey City, NJ
1989
1981
Commissioned by photographer Nan Goldin to create two pieces for her controversial exhibit “Witnesses Against Our Vanishing” at Artists Space whose funding was threatened by The National Endowment for the Arts.
Takes part in action to prevent the South African Rugby Team from boarding a plane at JFK Airport using stink bombs. Succeeds in drawing public attention to their presence in the United States years before the US and 24 other nations imposed trade sanctions on South Africa in opposition to Apartheid in the late ‘80s.
Convicted of resisting arrest and criminal trespassing. Serves six months at Rikers Island jail.
1992
Exhibits in “Dance of the Spider Woman,” Herron Test Site Brooklyn, New York
Exhibits in “Catholicism” at Progressive Culture Works, Jersey City, NJ
1993
Exhibits in “Mom and Dad” at Progressive Culture Works, Jersey City, NJ
Constructs a tiny duplex home and studio out of a 10’ x 17’ x 19’ tall janitor’s closet at 111 1st Street and begins creating mono prints for a new exhibition.
Creates and exhibits “Chain of Incident,” inaugural exhibit at Trans Hudson Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey (Gallerist Joseph Szoecs)
1994-1997 earns a living working as a carpenter including displays for Carolyn’s Comedy Club, Saks 5th Avenue, Lord and Taylor,. Doing installation work for DIA Foundation.
1994
Exhibits in New Jersey Arts Annual, Trenton State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey (Curators Alison Weld and Zoltan Buki).
Creates and exhibits “The Conjurer:”
“Working with a classic ordinary form, that of the pigeon, I created five birds out of wood and wax. I am interested in the contradictions that this bird embodies, being from the dove family and known as the rats of the street. I respond to the pigeon’s role as worker and as messenger (the carrier birds). In “the Conjurer,” they are employed as messengers and above them are five silk screen prints of flattened french fry containers in sentence form; this is the message. In their distressed state, stripped of their commercial meaning, the french fry containers (natural artifacts) string together as the characters of an internal language.”
Exhibits “Chain of Incident,” at James Howe Gallery, Kean College, Union City New Jersey (accompanied by lecture and slideshow).
Exhibits in Fifth Annual Cathedral Arts Festival, Grace Church, Jersey City (curator Ahn Behrens, director of Cooper Gallery, Jersey City)
1995
Exhibits “Chain of Incident,” Greene Windows, Soho 20, New York, NY
Begins body of work “Out of Service”
Exhibits “Out of Service,” Trans Hudson Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey
“Out of Service “reviewed by Jude Schwendenwein, Sculpture magazine, Nov 1995; David Ebony, Art in America, January 1996
1996
Exhibits in “Material Dialogue,” Trenton State Museum (curated by Alison Weld)
Exhibits “Chain of Incident,” at Visceglia Art Center, Caldwell College, Caldwell, NJ
Exhibits “Taipei Series” and “How to Enter a Woman,” Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, New York.
Shows at Gender Plex, Puffin Foundation, New York, New York.
Shows at An (Alternative) Alternative Art Fair, New York, NY.
1998
Studies towards a Masters in Fine Arts at Milton Avery Graduate School at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
It was there she began making dramatic pieces that evoked film sound-scapes. She continued her sound studies at the Institute of Audio Research in New York City.
2000
1997
Is one of two Americans invited to the International Women's
University in Hamburg, Germany to represent the U.S. in the Arts.
Forms the film company, Thin Edge Films with her producing partner and wife, Lisa Thomas.
Together they complete the short films Out of Service (2004), Cast to the Wind (2008) and 142 Years (2012) as well as the music videos Say Anything (2014) and All That I Am (2016) for soul / jazz artist, Nicky Egan.
Material Dialogues, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Janet Purcell, “Scrap Happy at the State Museum,” April 11, 1997, The Times of Trenton
“By transforming even the most commonplace objects into visual statements, the artists in this exhibit have created works of contemporary beauty.”—Janet Purcell, The Times of Trenton
Designed and produced “Building a Brave New Post Queer World,” and “Celibacy, Our Choice or Not,” for the Sexuality Committee, The Center, New York City, November 6, 1997.
2010-2016
2000-2008
Co-writes and directs Thirsty— a post-queer musical film.
This biopic tells the story of Provincetown Cher impersonator Thirsty Burlington, AKA Scott Townsend.
Co-hosted the radio program, The Score, on WGXC 90.7 FM with her producing partner, Lisa Thomas 2010-2014. The Score featured film scores like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Wizard of Oz, and Thelma and Louise.
Writes and co-directs Freeing Silvia Baraldini for Thin Edge Films—an award winning independent documentary, featuring Baraldini, Melissa Jackson, and Noam Chomsky.
2016
Dies of ovarian cancer at home in Athens, New York
PRESS
David Goodman, Left Bank of The Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street, 2018. Empire State Editions (an imprint of Fordham University Press), New York.
Damon Wise, “Raindance: ‘Thirsty’ Director Margo Pelletier on Gender Identity, ‘Post-Queer’ Cinema and the Search for Cher,” Variety, September 28, 2016
Loren King, Some local touches to the program in P-town, The Boston Globe, June 12, 2016
Daniel Zuckerman, Margo Pelletier, filmmaker and visual artist, dies at 65, November 29, 2016. Columbia-Green Media: The Daily Gazette.
Mary Patten, Revolution as an Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective, 2011. Chicago, Illinois: Half Letter Press.
David Ebony, review “Out of Service,” Trans Hudson gallery, January 1996. Art in America.
Jude Schwendenwein, review “Out of Service,” Trans Hudson gallery, November 1995. Sculpture.
John Petrick, The Art of Living: Zoning Changes May Help Artists, Jersey City, The Jersey Journal, February 13, 1996
Kay Kenny, Essence of Life in Art Show, The Jersey Journal, November 2, 1995
Eileen Watkins, Arts Festival Looks Like A Winner: Peer & Now, The Star-Ledger, April 21, 1994
Ann Behren, Pelletier’s Transformation as Artist Shown in New Work, The Times, June 1990.
Nan Goldin, editor, Witnesses: Against our Vanishing, 1989. Essays by Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz, Linda Yablonsky, Cookie Mueller. New York: Artists Space.
Richard Johnson, Rugby Riots: no bail for 5 charged in Acid Attack, The New York Post, September 26, 1981
Thomas F. Potter, Playfulness glimpsed at New Britain Museum, The Hartford Record-Journal, October 21, 1978
Eric Gordon, Portrait of the Artist: Recognition Comes in Threes (Margo Pelletier), The Hartford Advocate, July 20, 1977