Margaret Smithers-Crump’s current body of work focuses on vulnerability, growth, powerlessness, and transformation within natural cycles of life. It addresses the passage of time, the maturation of beauty, and the inevitability of disintegration. This dual relationship of death and renewal has historically been at the epicenter of philosophy, mythology, and diverse systems of belief. To explore these concepts of strength and frailty, the artist uses translucent Plexiglas as her primary material. Plexiglas can function as a painting substrate or as a substance that can be manipulated: it can be cut into shapes, bent or melted by heat, chemically bonded, etched, or sanded down to receive diverse art media. Smithers-Crump frequently works with multiple forms that are staged into arrangements to present a particular condition or moment in time. While Plexiglas is relatively strong, its glass-like appearance suggests fragility; by extension, it implies the possibility of breakage and acts as a metaphor for existence. It is this tension between the beauty of the material and its apparent vulnerability that she finds so fascinating.

Margaret Smithers-Crump is a Canadian artist based in Houston, Texas. For the last eighteen years, Smithers-Crump has been exploring the creative potential of Plexiglas, in both painting and installations. She received her BFA in Painting from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Among her recent exhibitions is a one-person show at Houston’s Lawndale Art Center.