Margot Samel

About the Gallery
Margot Samel's program is highly research driven, fostering exhibitions by artists of international backgrounds in all stages of their careers. A key area of focus is historic and contemporary artists from the Baltic region.

About the Presentation
Margot Samel will show a two-person presentation of works by Sarah Margnetti (b. 1983, Monthey, Switzerland) and Elizabeth Radcliffe (b.1949, Edinburgh, Scotland) at Independent.

Sarah Margnetti blends the body with architectural elements in comic hybridizations that unsettle notions of gender, sexuality, and domesticity. Her figures move seamlessly through surfaces and change their shape, only revealing themselves in fragmented parts that are depicted in stylistic contrast to meticulously wrought trompe l’oeil’ architectural materials. 

Serving as acts of dedication, Elizabeth Radcliffe’s weavings memorialize moments in her life, and are imbued with a considerable amount of her labour. In each work, a garment points to the sartorial sensibility of its wearer, and provides a set of material conditions that form the basis of Radcliffe’s inquiry. Highly attentive to the tactile finish of the fabric that she is replicating by other means, she employs a range of materials that are both natural and synthetic. In spite of the formal innovations that she brings to the medium, Radcliffe conceives of her practice as staunchly part of a lineage of tapestry weaving, as opposed to a more recent phenomenon such as fibre art. The distinction is crucial, not least because such categories have been all too frequently used to demarcate, and in many instances, denigrate areas of female creativity.