Margarita Frančeska Loze (b. 1997, Latvia) is a recent graduate of MFA Fine Art from Kingston School of Art and is a co-founder of Conch Collective (2023). She has received a Global Talent Art Prize (2023) and has been nominated for The Muse Residency 2024. In year 2022 she was selected for the Venice Biennale Fellowship programme.
The work of Margarita is an exploration of the subtle beauty of life’s moments and a celebration of the poetics of the ordinary. Her recent work combines textile production with the use of found objects. By using a variety of mediums, such as hand-drawn stop motion, writing, embroidery and sculpture, she attempts to capture the transient nature of life and create a tangible connection to universal and personal memories. Through her experimental narrative approach, Margarita makes a dreamlike ontology, to capture the nuances of spatial, temporal and poetic navigation.
Loze seeks objects with defined functions, such as photo albums and frames, or peculiar objects with odd forms and holes. Although she directly works on these materials, adding new marks with threads, she retains details of their original shapes and imperfections. By blending these derelict objects’ ephemeral qualities with her memories and imagined worlds, she questions the function of the objects and the phenomenology of appearance.
By exploring myths from various cultures, phenomena such as déjà vu and atmospheric optics, she seeks to capture a sense of magic and the supernatural. The use of transparent paper drawings in her stop-motion animations further enhances the ethereal and surreal atmosphere of these experiences.
forthcoming
Ukrainian Biennale of Digital and Media Art (Location to be announced, October)
MADATAC XII, Madrid, Spain (October)
ROOD Takeover Dalston: Techno-body (Dalston Den, October 19)
Inside Jobs, Athens, Greece (PV November 11)
The Muse Residency 2024, Notting Hill, UK (January - July)
education
2023 MFA Fine Art, Kingston School of Art, London, UK
2021 BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London, London, UK
2017 Riga School of Design and art: Form Textile design, Riga, Latvia
selected exhibitions & performances
2023 Open Call 2023, Mepaintsme, United States
2023 The Muse Residency 2024 Competition Summer Group Show, The Muse Gallery, London, UK
2023 Down The Garden Path, Safehouse 1, London, UK
2023 Metamorphosis, MFA Fine Art Degree show, Stanley Picker Gallery, London, UK
2023 Red in Tooth and Claw, FILET, London, UK
2022 Reflections, Blanco Gallery, Islington Arts Factory, London, UK
2021 Four Hands Meet / Concert Dessiné, hARTSlane gallery, London, UK (live drawing performance)
2020 Tanzlar Theatre, White Bear Theatre, London, UK (stage set)
selected screenings
2023 ExIS Experimental Film & Video Festival in Seoul, Seoul Art Space Mullae, Korea, Seoul
2023 Latvian Video Art Archive, NOASS art centre, Riga, Latvia
2023 Online: Fine Art Shorts 2023, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston, UK
2021 MOVING HARTS, hARTSlane gallery, London, UK
grants & awards
2023 The Muse Residency 2024
2023 Project fund by Stanley Picker Trust
2022 Venice Fellowships Programme
2021 Moving image included in Video Art Archive of Latvian artists & NOASS art centre Video Art Archive
2019 Prunella Clough Prize, shortlisted
press
2023 Global Talent Art Prize interview
2023 MFA Fine Art Degree Show'23 catalogue, Kingston School of Art
2023 Venice Fellowship Programme 2022 Yearbook
2023 Studio visit by Blanco Gallery
2021 Moving Harts Interview with Margarita Ieva Loze By Rachel Lonsdale