Margaret Noel: Faults and Facades

Wednesday, September 11 — Saturday, October 12, 2024
Artist’s Talk: Wednesday, September 11, 5-6pm
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 11, 6-8pm

The Mueller Gallery at Caldwell University is excited to present Faults and Facades, an exhibition featuring the work of artist Margarete Noel.  The exhibition will be held from Wednesday, Sept. 18 to Saturday, Oct. 12. An artist’s talk will take place at the Mueller Gallery on Sept. 11 from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Margaret Noel documents the reconstruction of communities affected by disasters, both natural and manmade, in her current series, “Shelter”. Her process begins with initial plein air drawings created on site as communities start to rebuild. These drawings are highly detailed and serve as source material for her encaustic wax paintings that strip the buildings down to simplified architectural shapes, underlining the fragility of the infrastructure that all communities rely upon for shelter and safety. She explains that vulnerability of buildings and infrastructure is especially visible in areas under pressure from repeated climate events and seismic activity, but they can also be rendered suddenly obvious when a familiar building or bridge collapses due to a hidden flaw or neglected maintenance.  

In her encaustic pieces, Noel layers molten beeswax, soot, pigment and paper, starting with an underlayer of collage shapes and patterns that suggest transience and instability. This collage layer is built from discarded materials such as old magazines and soot ink, highlighting the resilience of communities as they rebuild, as well as the human tendency to retain and reconstruct instead of discard. Partially obscuring the collage, the solidity and geometry of the waxed encaustic paint strokes depict architectural forms and scaffolding, standing in stark contrast to the movement and jagged edges of the collage layer. She describes glowing colors, seductive surfaces, and distinct edges as evocative of Byzantine enamels and glazes. “I want these to be objects of beauty that [encourage people to] look head-on at uncomfortable truths about the fragility of our infrastructure and our human desire to rebuild the familiar and historic, even when repeated pressure from climate change and geographic faults make these efforts feel ultimately futile,” says Noel.

Noel’s formal reduction and fragmentation of architectural spaces, as well as her unique range of contextually relevant materials, are tailored to address a reality of both tension and optimism in our contemporary moment of profound meteorological and geological change.”