Margaret Vega

Professor Emeritus of Painting Margaret Vega taught Undergraduate and Graduate Painting, Drawing, Color theory, Concept Development and thesis at Kendall College of Art and Design until 2022. She has also taught at Academia di Belle Arti in Perugia, Italy and Grand Valley State University. Highlighted major exhibitions include: This is the Future of Non-Objective Art, International Juried Show; Color Me Flesh, Still Counting: Census and Token; Atlantic Gallery, NYC, catalog available; Directors Choice, Group show, Viridian Gallery, NYC; Tenuous Threads, Color Me Flesh: Quipu Knots, Juror Patricia Miranda, Atlantic Gallery, NYC; 32nd Annual International Juried Exhibition, Artifacts Found: Imbalance, Viridian Gallery, NYC; 14th Annual Juried Show, Color Me Flesh, Still Counting, Prince St. Gallery, NYC; Borrowed Light, Homage to my Father; ofrenda installation; Grand Rapids Public Museum, Michigan; Plein Air Plus, Long Beach Island Foundation, Award; Juror, Julian Ochs Dweck, Chief Curator, Princeton University Art Museum; Studio 255, Visual Commentary on the Systematic Branding of Other, American Academy in Rome, IT; Medina Gallery, Rome, IT; Landscape as Muse, Solo Show Dacia Gallery, NYC; GeoLogic, Atlantic Gallery, NYC; WHO.ARE.YOU,?, Atlantic Gallery, NYC; 14th annual juried show Prince St Gallery NYC; Plein Air Plus, Long Beach Island Foundation; Self, Symbol and Surrogate: Grand Rapids Art Museum; Prints and Processes, Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI; Icarus, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Giovanni Valdarno, IT; ArtExpo 2015, Milan, IT; East-West, Shanghai, China; Angelus Novus International Juried Exhibition, Perugia, Italy; Bridging Continents, 14 American Artists in Germany, in  Munich, Frankfurter, Stuttgart and Cologne; Voices of the Children, One Woman Exhibition at UICA and ArtPrize in Grand Rapids; Landscape, Volid Gallery in Chicago; Group and solo shows in NYC, Lydon Gallery, Chicago and Harleen-Allen Gallery, San Francisco. Her work is in private and corporate collections in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Europe; Voices of the Children, Head of a Boy is part of the Permanent Collection of the Grand Rapids Art Museum; Her work is also in the permanent collections of Museum of Contemporary Art, San Giovanni Valdarno, IT; Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture, Grand Rapids, MI; Steelcase and Grand Valley State University; She is represented by Dacia Gallery, NYC and Via Design, GR, MI

Margaret served as principle designer for three Caffe’ Leonardo locations and Suite 303 of the Waters Building in Grand Rapids.

Her awards include: Michigan Council for the Arts Grant, YWCA Tribute Award for outstanding contribution to the Arts; Legacy: Woman’s History Month Award. Her work has been shown in ArtNews and Art in America. Margaret is listed in the Art Index of American Painters.

Margaret has been awarded residencies in Italy and in New York City, including the Visitng Artist and Scholar residency award at the American Academy in Rome for her Color Me Flesh project. She has lectured about her work and the cultural influence of aesthetics at numerous colleges in both the US and Italy.    

Vega is Founding Director of SiteStudio, an organization that brings maker experiences to children within their community, and Children Designing for Children initiative.  www.artlinkgr.weebly.com

Contact info: mvegastudio@aol.com

 Margaret Vega's, Oil Monotype, 35.5"x50", Head of a Boy, was purchased by the Grand Rapids Art Museum in November 2016 for their Permanent Collection.
Head of a Boy, is part of the series, Voices of the Children, which includes 30 Monotypes specifically exploring the child as messenger, and the awareness of their voice.  Other pieces from this series are part of the Grand Valley State University collection, and the Children's Assessment Center.
Head of a Boy, will be unveiled as part of the GRAM show Prints and Processes, January 24-April 30, 2017, with other work from the permanent collection by Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt van Rijn, William Blake, Mary Cassatt, and Andy Warhol whose work is organized by the printmaking method.