The Artist
Margaret Abramshe is an accomplished artist, writer, and educator with four decades of professional experience. Based in Southern Utah, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado, a degree in Art Education from Florida International University, and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado. Her studio practice brings together painting, digital processes, surface design, and stitching to create layered textile works that bridge contemporary art, portraiture, and narrative.
Her artwork has been featured in numerous juried exhibitions at local, national, and international levels, and she has presented solo exhibitions including Merging Lines at the St. George Art Museum. In 2027, she will present a solo exhibition at the Eccles Gallery in Salt Lake City. In addition to her studio work, Margaret is actively engaged in the art community through workshops, lectures, and writing. Her articles have appeared in professional publications including The SAQA Journal, Quilting Arts Studio, and Art Quilting. She also writes on Substack, where she reflects on the artistic process and the cultural, historical, and personal connections that inform her work.
Statement
Time has become an increasingly visible presence in my work. I am aware that I am likely moving through the final third of my life, and that awareness has sharpened my attention to memory, change, and what remains. Yet my interest in time is not simply personal or chronological. It is also part of how I understand the world. Through history, observation, and the creative process itself, I continually return to the ways experience accumulates, fades, resurfaces, and leaves its mark.
Although cloth is my primary material, I approach it as a painter rather than a traditional quilter. I begin with a photograph, develop it into a digital composition, and enlarge it onto linen-cotton canvas, which becomes the underpainting. From there, I build the painted surface and use stitching as a form of drawing. The stitched line transforms the flat surface into something unexpected, adding texture, structure, and a record of touch, attention, and time spent with the work.
I am drawn to surfaces that suggest wear, memory, and transformation that feel as though they have lived before arriving in the present moment. Marks, layers, fragments, and stitched passages become evidence of what has come before. In this way, work is not only an image but also a kind of history, shaped by erosion, repair, and revision.
Rather than preserving a single fixed moment, my work acknowledges the passage of time and the quiet force it exerts on both art and life. The stitching is not merely decorative; it becomes a way of marking duration, tracing attention, and giving form to the slow accumulation of experience. Through painting and stitched cloth, I explore how memory settles into surfaces and how time continues to shape what we see, what we make, and what we carry forward.
CV
CV: Margaret Abramshe
Education
1981 – Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Colorado
1991 – Bachelor or Arts, Art Education, Florida International University
2002 – Master’s Fine Art, University of Northern Colorado
Solo Exhibition
2027 - Portraits on a Soft Canvas: A conversation with History, SLCC Eccles Gallery
2024 – Merging Lines Saint George Art Museum, UT
2023 – Layered and Stitched, Glen Blakely Gallery, St George UT
Paint, Photo and Fiber Red Cliff Gallery, UT
Selected Juried & Group Exhibitions
2026
SUFA Exhibition, St. George Convention Center, St. George Utah
Springville Salon, Museum, Springville UT
2025
Presidents Show, SLCC Eccles Gallery, Salt Lake City Utah
39th Annual Spiritual & Religious Exhibition, Springville UT
Interpretations, Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA
Balance, Travelling Exhibition, CO, WY, UT
Sacred Threads, Indianapolis, IN
Springville Salon, Springville UT
2024
Presidents Art Show, SLCC Eccles Art Gallery, Salt Lake City UT
38th Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah, Springville UT
Utah Salon, Springville Museum, Springville UT
Statewide Annual, Ogen Center for the Arts UT
FIerce Planets, LSU Museum of Art, Louisiana
New Legacies, Lincoln Center, Ft Collins, CO
Sustainability, St George Art Museum, UT
2023
Women Artists of the Desert, Glen Blakely Gallery, St George, UT
Way of Water, Art Provides Gallery, St George UT
Diversity Lives Here”, Titled Kiln, St George Utah
Nature in Abstraction, Kayenta Center for the Arts, Ivins Utah
2022
Women Out West, Sears Gallery, Utah Tech University, St George, UT
Day of the Dead, St George Art Museum, UT
Utah Women Artists Exhibition, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley City, UT
SustainABILITY” , SAQA Global Exhibition, Juror Tali Weinberg
Fantasy, Imagination & Dreams, Kayenta Center for the Arts, Ivins, UT
2021
Art Quilts 2, California Heritage Museum, Santa Monica, CA
Microscape,San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX
Interest Chicago, Navy Pier, Chicago IL
Quilt=Art=Quilt, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn NY
From The Earth: Fiber And Ceramics, Kayenta Center for the Arts, UT
In All Their Glory, Poway Center for the Arts, Poway, CA
2020
Aloft, Grants Pass Museum of Art, Grants Pass, Oregon
Opposites Attract, Australia, Various locations
Beyond the Mirror, Various Locations Australia & US
Form, Not Function, Carnegie Center, IN
Quilts=Art=Quilts”, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, NY
2019 Forced to Flee”, Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts,
Rhapsody, Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA
Sacred Threads, Herndon Virginia
Evolving Perceptions, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO
37th Annual New Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts, Lincoln Center, Ft Collins CO
2018
Guns: Loaded Conversations, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Artist as Quiltmaker XVIII, Firelands Association Oberlin OH
New Legacies, Lincoln Center, Ft. Collins CO
Quilt=Art=Quilt, Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn NY
2017
H2oh!, National Quilt Museum, Paducah Kentucky; Juror Linda Gass
Pathfinders, Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City Utah
Untethered Thread, Poway Center for the Arts, Poway California
Conversations, Visions Art Museum, San Diego CA
Art Quilts,Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA.
2016
Stories of Migration, Textile Museum, George Washington University. Washington DC
Stitch Dialectic, Poway Center for the Performing Arts
Above and Beyond, Lakewood Cultural Center, Lakewood CO
New Legacies, Lincoln Center, Ft. Collins CO
Quilt=Art=Quilt, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn NY
2012 – 2015
No Place Like Home, Lincoln Center Fort Collins, CO
The Artist as Quiltmaker, Firelands Association, Oberlin OH
Quilt=Art=Quilt, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn NY
Art of the State, Arvada Center, Arvada CO
Awards
2nd Place, SUFA Exhibition, St. George Utah
Best in Show, Life is Movement, Mesquite Fine Arts Center
Honorable Mention, 35th New Legacies Exhibition, Ft Collins, CO
Kirtz/Van Nortwick Award, Artist as Quiltmaker XVIII 2
Wall/Floor Works Award, Excellence in Fiber, Fiber Arts Now Magazine
2nd Place, Quilt=Art=Quilt, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center
Jurors Choice, Quilt=Art=Quilt, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center
Publicity:
Photo Memory Quilts: Lesley Riley Spotify
Re-imagine Your Art | Quilting Arts Podcast: Episode 26
Textile Talks : Conversations with Artist from Microscape
Lightning Talks: Lessons from An Art Teacher
Beyond the Mirror: Meet the Artist Margaret Abramshe
Quilt Stories: Fascinating Portrait Quilts with Margaret Abramshe
Evolving Perceptions: Quilters Roundtable at the Brigham City Museum
Go Tell it At the Quilt Show: Interview with Margaret Abramshe
Best of Show, National Small Works Competition, Mesquite Fine Arts Gallery
PUBLICATIONS
Art Quilt Studio, “Digging Into The Past”, Winter 2025
Quilting Arts Magazine, “Color Theory”, Fall 2025
Quilting Arts Magazine, “Pics Art” Fall 2024,
Quilting Arts Magazine, “Elements of Design for the Art Quilter”, Fall 2023
Photo Memory Quilts, CT Publishing 2023
Quilting Arts Magazine, “Cut Up Quilts” Summer 2022
Patchwork Professional, “Margaret Abramshe: Artist Interview” January 2022
Quilting Arts Magazine, “Using your Device as a Design Tool”, September 2021
Art Quilt Quarterly, “Portfolio: Gaze”, Issue 24
Digital Cloth, “Margaret Abramshe :Portrait Art”, Issue 9
Featured Article, “Design Principles Hone Compositional Skills”, SAQA Journal, 2020 no. 3
“In the Spotlight and Fine Finish”; Quilting Arts Magazine, Feb/Mar 2020