Margery E. Goldberg

Last updated
Margery E. Goldberg
Born1950
Rochester, New York
Occupation(s)Artist and art gallery curator

Margery E. Goldberg (born 1950) is an American artist, art curator, city arts commissioner, [1] and activist. She is best known as the founder and curator of Zenith Gallery in Washington, D.C., which exhibits contemporary art in all media, and represents over 100 emerging to mid-career and established artists.

Contents

Biography

Early life and career

Goldberg was born in 1950 in Rochester, New York. [1] She started sculpting in clay at the age of 10 and took classes at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery during elementary and high school. [1] Despite her aptitude for handiwork, she pursued art training during high school. Her father was a printer and advertiser, so Goldberg grew up around business operations. [2]

Goldberg attended George Washington University from 1968 to 1972, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts. [1] From 1972 to 1977, she operated a workshop in a 100-year-old hayloft on Washington, D.C.'s K Street, where she built commissions and held art shows. [2]

After Goldberg's K Street studio burned down in 1977, she and two friends bought a 50,000 ft2 space at 15th Street and Rhode Island Avenue in Washington, D.C. [2] It was this space, which included six townhouses, two large buildings, and multiple carriage houses, that would in 1978 become Zenith Gallery. [3] [4] Goldberg renovated some of the houses and rented rooms to artists. About half of Goldberg's artist-tenants also worked in studios at Zenith Gallery. [2] In 1987, Goldberg opened a second location of Zenith Gallery in Washington, D.C., on 7th street's Gallery Row, [5] which remained open until 2009. [1] [6] [7] Following the closure of the Zenith Gallery location at Rhode Island Avenue in December 1987, [5] Goldberg focused on creating non-commissioned pieces that were later offered for sale. [8] According to Goldberg:

“How do you put creativity in a budget? I’d rather create the piece, and then if someone wants to come along and buy it, wonderful. Commissions pay the bills, but that’s about all they do.” [8]

The gallery is currently located at 1429 Iris Street NW, Washington, D.C. Goldberg also programs art for the lobby at 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. [9]

Other activities

In 1980, Goldberg co-founded the Arts and Entertainment News Service, [10] which videotaped and documented more than 30 arts, music, and cultural events for WETA-TV public television. [1] Today, those videos serve as an archive of the Washington, D.C., art scene.

As an activist and arts advocate, Goldberg founded the Zenith Community Arts Foundation [11] in 2000, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to initiatives and projects that benefit artists and the overall Washington, D.C., community. [12] In 1998 and 2007, Goldberg served on Washington D.C.'s Downtown Arts Development Task Force. [1] From 1992 to 1997, Goldberg was a commissioner of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and was treasurer of the Commission's executive committee for two of those years. [1]

Honors, awards and distinctions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloomingdale (Washington, D.C.)</span> Place in the United States

Bloomingdale is a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., less than two miles (3 km) north of the United States Capitol building. It is a primarily residential neighborhood, with a small commercial center near the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and First Street NW featuring bars, restaurants, and food markets.

Matthew Langley is a New York City painter and photographer whose work has focuses on space, compression, volume and sentience (painting) and Vanishing American DIY culture (photography). This photographic series is titled Vanishing Culture USA.

Cynthia Connolly is an American photographer, curator, graphic designer, and artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artomatic</span>

Artomatic is a multi-week, multimedia arts event held in the Washington metropolitan area of the United States. It was founded by Washington, D.C. artist and arts activist George Koch. The non-juried, open event has provided a forum for artists of all types and abilities. There are also arts education and professional development workshops and discussions. Events were held from 1999 up to 2017 at intervals from one to three years, depending upon the availability of a site. Unable to have in-person events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an online event was held in 2020. The organization has remained active in the local arts community.

Sylvia Snowden is an African American abstract painter who works with acrylics, oil pastels, and mixed media to create textured works that convey the "feel of paint". Many museums have hosted her art in exhibits, while several have added her works to their permanent collections.

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) is an American non-profit arts organization founded in 1975, dedicated to the support and aid of artists in the Washington, D.C. area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Brown Goldberg</span> American artist

Carol Brown Goldberg is an American artist working in a variety of media. While primarily a painter creating heavily detailed work as large as 10 feet by 10 feet, she is also known for sculpture, film, and drawing. Her work has ranged from narrative genre paintings to multi-layered abstractions to realistic portraits to intricate gardens and jungles.

Maggie Michael is an American painter. Born in Milwaukee, Michael has spent much of her career in Washington, D.C. A 1996 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from which she received a BFA, with honors, she received her MA from San Francisco State University in 2000 and her MFA from American University in 2002. She has received numerous awards during her career, including a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2004, the same year in which she was given a Young Artist Grant by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities; she has also worked with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Michael is married to the sculptor Dan Steinhilber. She has served on the faculty of the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erwin Timmers</span> Dutch-born American artist

Erwin Timmers is a Dutch-born American artist and the co-founder of the Washington Glass School in the Greater Washington, D.C. capital area. Timmers has been recognized as one of the early "green or environmental artists", working mostly with recycled glass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zenith Gallery</span> Art gallery in Washington, DC, US

Zenith Gallery is a fine arts gallery in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Tate</span> American artist and the co-founder of the Washington Glass School

Tim Tate is an American artist and the co-founder of the Washington Glass School in the Greater Washington, DC capital area. The school was founded in 2001 and is now the second largest warm glass school in the United States. Tate was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1989 and was told that he had a year left to live. As a result, Tate decided to begin working with glass in order to leave a legacy behind. Over a decade ago, Tate began incorporating video and embedded electronics into his glass sculptures, thus becoming one of the first artists to migrate and integrate the relatively new form of video art into sculptural works. In 2019 he was selected to represent the United States at the sixth edition of the GLASSTRESS exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

Rosetta DeBerardinis is an American artist currently working out of New York City.

Joan Belmar is an American artist. He is a painter who uses a three dimensional technique using painting and collage processes with both painted and untreated Mylar/paper strips in circles and curvilinear shapes variations which then produced different and changes degrees of transparency, as light and the viewer move in relation to the work. He was a Washington, DC Mayor's Art Award Finalist in 2007 as an outstanding emerging artist. The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities has also awarded him with an Artist Fellowship Program grant in 2009, and in 2011 he was awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD. He is a two-time recipient of the Maryland Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in Visual Arts: Painting, in 2010and 2013.

Addison/Ripley Fine Art is an art gallery in Washington, D.C. The gallery was established in 1981, in addition to being an independent commercial fine arts gallery, it also serves as an art consultant and curator to the Warner Building, Washington, D.C., and as art consultants to several Washington, D. C. private companies, as well as to the German Marshall Fund, Washington, D.C., and to the United States Department of State, Overseas Buildings Operation, Washington, D. C.

Amber Robles-Gordon is an American mixed media visual artist. She resides in Washington, DC and predominantly works with found objects and textiles to create assemblages, large-scale sculptures, installations and public artwork.

Shanthi Chandrasekar is an American artist of Indian ancestry. Her artwork is strongly influenced by her training in the traditional art form of Thanjavur painting. She resides in Maryland, in the Greater Washington, DC area. She was born in Tamil Nadu, India.

Ric Garcia is an American fine arts painter, digital printmaker, and curator of Cuban ancestry currently working and residing in the Greater Washington, DC area.

Cita Sadeli is a D.C. based art director, muralist, designer and illustrator. Sadeli has worked with the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution.

Betty White Unites! was an invitational visual arts exhibition held from January 14 to January 29, 2022 at the Zenith Gallery in Washington, D.C., as an homage and celebration to American actress Betty White, who had died at the end of 2021.

Barbara Januszkiewicz is a Washington, D.C.–based American multimedia artist, creative activist, and teacher known for her stained neo-Color field abstract expressionism paintings. She works in water-based media, specifically watercolor and diluted acrylic paint on unprepared canvas in the manner of Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Artline. (n.d.). Margery E. Goldberg.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Oda, Ken. (1998). “Should a Gallery Selling Neon and Humorous Art Be Taken Seriously?” Ken Oda’s Art Newsletter 6, no. 5: 1-12.
  3. 1 2 3 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. (2010). April ART 202 Journal - The Mayor's Arts Awards..
  4. ↑ Jenkins, Mark (August 10, 2018). "In the galleries: Even when extravagance is the theme, less can be more". The Washington Post.
  5. 1 2 Jenkins, Mark (March 9, 2018). "In the galleries: Zenith celebrates 40 years with two exhibitions in two spaces". The Washington Post.
  6. ↑ Dawson, Jessica (March 13, 2009). "Zenith Gallery Is Shutting Its Doors". The Washington Post.
  7. ↑ Fisher, Mark (January 25, 2009). "On Seventh Street NW, Hope Trumps Disheartenment". The Washington Post.
  8. 1 2 Larry, Hand. “Human Figures Important Theme for DC Sculptress.” Woodshop news (Essex, CT), December 1988.
  9. ↑ Jenkins, Mark (February 12, 2012). "Art losing its toehold in downtown Washington". The Washington Post.
  10. ↑ Richard, Paul (September 3, 1980). "Sweesh, Thud: Art". The Washington Post.
  11. ↑ "Zenith Community Arts Foundation | DCAHEC". dccollaborative.org. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  12. ↑ Zenith Community Arts Foundation. (n.d.) About ZCAF
  13. ↑ "artline® Digest | Art Dealers Association of Greater Washington | News and Events". www.artline.com. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
  14. ↑ Council of the District of Columbia. (2018). A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION 22-291
  15. ↑ "DC Council Honors Margery E. Goldberg". www.eastcityart.com. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  1. Zenith Gallery
  2. Zenith Community Arts Foundation
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.