February 16, 2018

To: Adam Weinberg, Director, Whitney Museum of American Art
From: Margaret Evangeline, artist, Brooklyn, NY

Dear Adam,

It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to my work in the form of an exhibition proposal. I’m a Louisiana born, New York based artist who has consistently exhibited in galleries and museums for over forty years. We have met on numerous occasions at Donna and Ben Rosen’s home (they are close personal friends and long time supporters of my work). I recall that as the Whitney was being built, I sometimes ran into you in the neighborhood and you were always kind. Not to overstep my bounds but I hope that you will find my proposal compelling enough to present it to the curators of the 2019 Whitney Biennial.

To give context for my current proposal, I’d like to tell you about my 2014 exhibition “Sabachthani” at the Eli and Edythe Broad Museum in Michigan, curated by the late Michael Rush. “Sabachthani” centered on a collaboration I did with service members in Iraq, one of whom was my son. For the artwork, I mailed 14 stainless steel bars to an APO address. The service members shot the metal and mailed them back to me. These artworks in part represented a tactile connection between me and my son, and other service members and their families, along with the often unvoiced yet ever-present knowledge of impending violence.

My current proposal follows in the footsteps of “Sabachthani” by asking the viewer to enter the emotional space of someone affected by American gun violence. Entitled “Ruination and Redemption”, the work uses assisted readymades (prison mirrors) shot from the verso with a Taurus 454 Casull. This is a conversation approached without over aestheticizing the raw topics of gun violence, incarceration, and surveillance. People look to the Whitney as the flagship of American art and this is an urgent American conversation.

Below is the link to my exhibition proposal, statement, and CV. I will also be sending you a copy in the mail. I’d like to invite you and your curators to my Industry City studio in Brooklyn to see the work. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for considering my proposal.

Best,
Margaret Evangeline

Ruination & Redemption Proposal (PDF)
Margaret Evangeline Artist Statement (PDF)
Margaret Evangeline CV (PDF)

Supporting Images

Institutional Shot Mirror #1, 2018, mirror polished readymade with gunshot, 17 1/4” x 11 1/4"

Institutional Shot Mirror #2, 2018, mirror polished readymade with gunshot, 17 1/4” x 11 1/4"

Institutional Shot Mirror #3, 2018, mirror polished readymade with gunshot, 17 1/4” x 11 1/4”

2014, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Sabachthani, Lansing, MI

Saved from the Waters, 2008, installation with punctured stainless steel, 15 x 30 x 1 ft, River Thames, London, towed under Tower Bridge

Gunshot Landscape (Fall View), 2003, mirror-polished double-sided stainless steel panel suspended by aircraft cable, 46 x 94 in. collection of The Fields Sculpture Park, Ghent, New York

Ruination and Redemption, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 72" x 96"

Shift #1, 2016, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in

Shift #2, 2016, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in