Margie Schnibbe

I’m excited to share some of my recent ceramic sculptures!

Group Encounter, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
17″ x 15″ x 14″

Ervin Says I’m Sorry, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
17.5″ x 17.5″ x 10″

Sun in Scorpio Moon in Libra, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
13.5” x 10” x 10”

Dancing with Myself, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
22″ x 8″ x 8″

Interpretation of Dreams, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
42″ x 14″ x 14″

I Feel Love, 2018, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
19″ x 10″ x 9″

A Certain Type of Object Choice, 2019, hire-fire ceramic with glaze,
7″ x 7″ x 6.5″

Big Woods Little Death, 2018, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
10″ x 10″ x 7.5″

Afternoon Delight, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
12” x 7.5” x 6”

Third Wave, 2018, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
9.34” x 10” x 4”

Two Cousins One Night, 2019, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
14” x 10” x 9”

A World One Needs to Discover, 2018, high-fire ceramic with glaze,
10″ x 8″ x 8″

While an undergrad ceramics major at Hunter College in NYC, I spent the summer of 1988 in an artist apprenticeship/residency program at the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia  not far from where Jessica Savitch drowned in a canal. I sublet my bedroom in an apartment I shared with Phideaux Xavier  on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side of NYC to our friend John Kenny, whom I was told, was quite fond of sitting naked on the living room couch.  At the tile works in the day I was required to perform the various tasks of a historic tile-maker and explain the tile-making process to the tourists as they walked through the facility. The job was stupid and the pay was shit but I learned about ceramic tiles, mold-making and cement. I liked my co-workers and housemates and met Carol Stakenas and Andrea Whitfield, who became my life-long friends. The best part about being an artist in residence/apprentice at the tile works was that after work and on days off, we could work in the studio and had free access to the materials and the kilns. I have fond memories of Carol and I smoking unfiltered cigarettes in a sweltering hot studio above the kiln room while working late into the night.

I found these exhibition images when I was preparing a grant application that required a 20+ year commitment to art making. This was my first real exhibition: a 3 person show.  I recall that a husband of one of my co-workers was a photographer and generously shot these slides for me.  I am grateful to have these images from so many years ago.

The pieces are constructed of cement and grog with imbedded (low-fire) tiles.  After the exhibition the fountain was donated to the community garden at Ave B & 6th Street in the East Village but eventually disintegrated in the winter. The vessels and cement plinths still survive today.

Margie Schnibbe . Fountain. 1988. glazed ceramic, cement, grout, 48” x 36” x 36”

Margie Schnibbe. Three Vessels and Three Plinths.  1988. glazed ceramic, cement, grout, 40” x 14” x 14”, 39” x 14” x 14”, 53” x 14” x 14”

 

Please join us at the closing reception for my exhibition Mary and Masoud in Heaven at The Finley Gallery. Sunday October 20 @ 2-4pm. I will be a reading poems at 2:30.
4627 FINLEY AVE.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90027 (in Los Feliz near the corner of Vermont)
During the reception the interior space will be open so you can see the sculptures up close. Visit any evening until October 20 from dawn until dusk to view the work through the window. Take a poem from the box in the garden.

My exhibition “Mary and Masoud in Heaven” is on view at the Finley Gallery in Los Feliz 24 hours a day 7 days a week until October 20. Optimal viewing hours are from dusk til dawn. Stand on the viewing platform to see the sculptures and take a poem home with you. 4627 Finley Ave, Los Angeles 90027. This is a tribute exhibition for my best friend Mary Bellis and my boyfriend Masoud Benam who both suddenly and unexpectedly died in 2015.

Thank you Mary and Masoud for all of your love and generosity. Rest in power my gorgeous friends and I will see you on the other side. 

KCHUNG Radio Merch at Big Cartel 
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Listen to Margie.LA past shows on KCHUNG Radio

Thank you to all who supported the Lot 2001 Kickstarter campaign! And many thanks to my fiscal sponsor Fulcrum Arts! We exceeded our Kickstarter goal thanks to all of you!  I am in the process of mailing rewards and everything is scheduled to ship by the beginning of April. If you missed the Kickstarter deadline and would like to donate to the Lot 2001 artist residency anytime, you can do so here. Donations are 100% tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

When I got home from the ceramics studio tonight Orff’s Carmina Burana was playing on KUSC.  (I leave the radio on for  Juki so he does not feel lonely). This piece always makes me smile. I think it’s great when classical musical merges with popular culture- even to the point when it’s almost kitsch. (Magic Flute ringtones? Yes I have heard them on the street outside the Disney Concert Hall but that’s another story… ) So I’m not sure which orchestra was broadcasting tonight but here is a performance I found on  YouTube.

The best know piece is  “O Fortuna”. When you listen to this you will have flashbacks of multiple media moments. Totally kitsch!

we had a fight
and then you left
and then we reconciled
and then you died
in a bicycle accident
on the Cesar Chavez bridge
coming home to me