Margaret Neumann’s work explores the emotional landscape of thoughts and feelings that form our sense of self. Whether we choose to face them or not, these emotions are universal, and ultimately form the basis of religious and spiritual institutions, as well as political and ideological movements across time and cultures. Many of these emotions relate to man’s vulnerability in the universe, and our attempt to find safety and ‘certainty’ no matter how small or how briefly.

Neumann’s paintings explore the process we go through to find, understand and come to terms with these emotions – a process that requires a peeling away of layers of defenses and fears. Indeed, Neumann’s painting method mirrors this process, but rather than peeling away, she ‘layers up’, beginning with a vague idea and unformed figures to a set of floating images embedded in and emerging out of the paint itself. Like the many layers of the self, Neumann builds up surfaces stroke by stroke until she sees an image that conveys the struggles confronted by the human psyche.

Margaret Neumann received a Master’s of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1969. She was a member of the influential Armory Group and has been a formative force in the Denver art world, serving as a founding member of Spark Gallery, a member of Pirate Contemporary, and one of the initial resource artists at RedLine.  She has exhibited throughout Colorado at multiple galleries and has had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver as well as participated in exhibitions at noted institutions such as the Mizel Center, the Denver Art Museum and the Colorado Fine Arts Center.