Margaret Griffith

Biography

Margaret Griffith is a Los Angeles–based artist whose practice spans sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and installation. Her work explores themes of structure, boundary, and transformation, drawing from the architectural and urban environments that shape daily life. Describing herself as an “urban scavenger,” Griffith gathers visual and conceptual material from the city and reconfigures it in ways that blur the line between representation and abstraction.

A focused example of this approach appears in QD and 5D, two prints created at Self Help Graphics for the Utopia/Dystopia portfolio curated by Miyo Stevens-Gandara. Produced alongside other artists in the series, including Leslie Dolin and Pavel Acevedo, these works examine how built structures can function simultaneously as symbols of protection and exclusion. Griffith’s use of fencing imagery becomes a vehicle for exploring the tension between idealized social order and lived urban reality.

In QD, the chain-link fence is rendered as rigid and immovable, emphasizing containment and separation. In contrast, 5D depicts a warped, golden fence that appears fluid and unstable, suggesting disruption and resistance to fixed systems of control. Together, the prints reflect Griffith’s ongoing interest in how ordinary urban materials can be transformed into charged metaphors for power, access, and human movement.

Across her broader body of work, Griffith continues to investigate form and space through both two- and three-dimensional media. Lines, grids, and repeated patterns are translated into immersive experiences that encourage viewers to reconsider how environments shape perception and behavior. Whether working in cut paper, sculpture, printmaking, or site-specific installation, her art consistently probes the visible and invisible structures that organize contemporary life.

Griffith earned her B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, with installations presented in both gallery contexts and public venues, including LAX Airport. In addition to her studio practice, she has served as an artist-in-residence and guest lecturer, contributing to ongoing conversations around contemporary art and education.