Marie Thibeault – Drawings, TransVagrant at Gallery 478

TransVagrant and Gallery 478 will present an exhibition of mixed media works on paper.

Liz Goldner, in an Artillery Magazine interview Marie Thibeault: Views of the Harbor, begins: “The artist showed me numerous drawings she began in March at the start of the lockdown.” 

“I was blown apart by the pandemic,” she said, “and stuck at home teaching on Zoom, and all I could do was draw, so I did three to four drawings a day.” 

While their shapes and forms echo those in her paintings, these drawings are more abstract and include medieval illustration, astrological maps and ancient diagrams illustrating serpents, insects and birds. 

“They also use diagrammatic forms referencing global mapping and scientific charts,” she said.

Thibeault’s drawings are not only investigations into possible architectures for painting, but also reveal the geography of the artist’s imagination. Whatever its approach, each work embodies a unique consideration of gesture and structure and a deeply felt understanding of the expressive potential of the graphic mark.

Thibeault is a professor emerita of art at California State University, Long Beach where she teaches painting and color theory. The exhibition runs March 3 through April 15.

Time: Artist reception 3 to 6 p.m. March 5 

Cost: Free

Details: 310-732-2150; www.spacedistrict.org/a/gallery478

Venue: TransVagrant at Gallery 478, 478 W 7th St, San Pedro