During the previous location of this exhibition at The Royal Society of Medicine, I was awarded The Dr J Gwynne Morgan Prize for two-dimensional artwork for my mixed media artwork ‘Flowers’.
During the evening there will be a talk by Isabelle Weir Etching: from preparatory drawings to plate tone.
Wednesday 20th August 6:00-8:00pm
Hampstead School of Art
Penrose Gardens, London NW3 7BF
I will be exhibiting alongside other members of MAS.
Exhibition to be held at the atrium of the RSM on Monday 21 July, 17:30-19:30
The Royal Society of Medicine 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE
Exhibition by Margot Elke Schiemann
Friends House, London
20 May to 20 July 2025
Review by Michael Robertson
Hampstead Meeting
Margot Schiemann’s ‘Riverbanks of Grief,’ an emotionally moving exhibition of sixteen mixed-media works, offers a narrative of a journey from brokenness to (partial) healing. The poetic fragments on the wall plaque next to each picture are enticingly open-ended, and the pictures themselves are richly enigmatic, ranging from the harsh jaggedness of the opening image to the explosive beauty of the last.
Schiemann’s work powerfully weaves together the personal, such as the grief following a violently shattered relationship, and the global, in images and texts that allude to war and climate change. The first work in the show, “Weather warnings,” a mixed-media collage, is dominated by jagged lines in scarlet and white against a deep green background. It takes effort to decipher the words scratched into the paint: ‘Hurricanes tear through the land.’ The accompanying poem is unrelievedly bleak, linking violence within the home to violent weather outside it. The image, however, contains a rich tension between, on the one hand, slashing red lines and desperately scratched warnings and, on the other, the solace of the underlying green, suggestive of the undying natural world.
The poem accompanying the show’s fourth work begins, ‘Precariously they survive in little huts along the beach.’ This sombre collage, one of the most visually sophisticated works on view, combines grey cut-out photographs with smeared text and earth-toned paint. The images are teasingly ambiguous. Are those animals, their backs turned to the viewer, dogs? pigs? wolves? The visual imagery is bleak, but the poem contains a line that signals a turning point in the exhibition: ‘Hope leaves her hurricane-home.’
The striking image accompanying this review is taken from the show’s next-to-last work: ‘Iron rods of peace mend broken bridges.’ The phrase suggests resolution, but Schiemann’s work is never simple. The bridge is definitely broken, but the mending is yet to be accomplished. The hope that first surfaces in ‘Precariously they survive’ reappears in the form of doves hovering above the bridge, their wings in blurred motion – a suggestion that some form of peace may arrive.
The show’s last work has the most unambiguously positive title: ‘Flight to Freedom.’ It’s a large and unabashedly beautiful work, awash with light in contrast to the show’s many sombre works. Birds—seemingly doves again—rise into the air above an unsettled landscape. The piece invites us to look closely. Bring your eyes within inches of the surface and you can just make out more birds, faintly pencilled in against the blinding white sky, their sketchy outlines suggesting as-yet-unrealised possibilities.
Margot Schiemann is a talented poet as well as an artist, and the poems connected to each picture—excerpted briefly in the wall plaques—are printed in full in the handsome catalogue on sale in the Friends House bookshop. Her work combines the harsh and the beautiful, powerfully juxtaposing attention to a wounded world with suggestions of hope and peace. Her exhibition exemplifies the Quaker way at its best: acknowledging violence and trauma while remaining open to possibilities of healing grace.
In Riverbanks of Grief Margot Schiemann applies her graphic skills to images that represent trauma, suffering and redemption. Through collage, pastel and paint she render these states with emotional intelligence through her highly relatable art making. Told as a linear emotional story – repair and triumph are translatable to any human difficulty and predicament.’
Margot Schiemann’s work is testament to the healing nature of creativity, one of the most important functions of art’.
Jan Woolf - Writer and artist
Margot Elke Schiemann is an artist, psychotherapist and group analyst who divides her time between making art and her private practice.
The story unfolds with images and text. The chronology of the pictures is not continuous, so please follow the numbers from side to side of the space.
A catalogue is available in the Friends House bookshop.
Exhibition at Friends House
173 -177 Euston Road.
London NW1 2BJ
20th May to 20th July 2025
Monday to Friday: 8.00am to 5.00pm
29 May to 3 July
Tavistock Centre
I will exhibiting work here details below.
An image of a semi abstract interpretation of Freud as part of it.
Date: 29 May to 3 July
Time: 9am to 5pm
Location:
Tavistock Centre
https://tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/events/open-art-exhibition-2025/
Film, poetry, art, music, and conversation inspired by John Berger - art critic, novelist, poet, and persistent questioner of power.
11th May 2025, 4.00 to 6.00 pm
Production by Rootball
Compere and Reader: Jan Woolf
The event will be accompanied by an exhibition. Including artists: Jack Brook, Jolie Goodman, Desmond Healey, Peter Kennard, Anna Nimann, Heather Niman, Margot Schiemann, Derek Ogbourne, Jan Woolf and many others.
The Green Room
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
1 North Road, Highgate Village
London N6 4BD
Opening hours
18th - 22nd, 10.30am-5.30pm
20th - 24th, 6.00pm-7.30pm
25th, 2.30pm-4.00pm
This is the Society’s main event each year.
You are welcome to join me at the
PRIVATE VIEW
Monday, 22nd July 5.00 - 6.30 pm
The Atrium of The Royal Society of Medicine
1 Wimpole Street, London W1G OAE
The RSM entrance is opposite the back of John Lewis shop in Oxford Street
The work is going to be shown at the RSM from 22nd - 27th July
Mo - Fri, 10am - 5pm
Hampstead School of Art is going to transfer all the work to their building until the end of September
Monday to Friday 10am – 5pm
2 Penrose Gardens
London
NW3 7BF
www.hsoa.co.uk
My work is displayed at a group exhibition during the Art Fair in Hampstead.
Sunday 23rd June 2024, 12 to 5pm
Keats House and Gardens
10 Keats Grove
London NW3 2RR
5th to 9th June 2024
at
Burgh House
New End Square
Hampstead NW3 1LT
020 7431 0144
Burghouse.org.uk
In my exhibition, I explore what is known and less known about Hampstead. I particularly enjoy ambiguity and uncertainty in imagery which move between the known and the mysterious.
This is evoked by mixed media and by bringing together different artistic approaches, such as photography, collage and drawing.
Additionally, I am curious about the interplay of light and darkness, both in nature and human experience.
Visitors will be able to view the show:
Wednesday 5th June, Thursday 6th June, Friday 7th June and
Sunday 9th June: 10 am to 4 pm.
On Saturdays Burgh House is closed for private events, but the café is open to visitors who are able to view the exhibition when the house is closed.
17th April – 27th May 2024
Monday to Friday 8 am to 8 pm
Art Space
Tavistock Centre
Riverbanks of Grief is a tribute to the human spirit, and the dilemmas many of us can encounter. I pose the question of how to respond when we experience devastation.
When we encounter the unexpected, perhaps with social and political dimensions, there is usually a complex interplay between forces in our internal world and the inevitable intrusions from the outside. In this artbook, ‘Riverbanks of Grief’ words and images speak to suffering, recovery and hope.
I hope this will resonate with you.
Self published art book available from margotschiemann@googlemail.com, £25 - plus postage
PRIVATE VIEW
Monday, 24th July. 5.00 – 6.30PM
Atrium of The Royal Society of Medicine
1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE
The RSM entrance is opposite the back of John Lewis’ shop in Oxford Street.
The work is going to be shown at the RSM from 24th to 29th July.
Hampstead School of Art is going to transfer all the work to their building until the end of September.
Monday to Friday 10am - 5pm
Hampstead School of Art
2 Penrose Gardens
London NW3 7BFK
My work is displayed at a group exhibition during the Art Fair in Hampstead.
HSF’s ‘Open Exhibition’ and the ‘Picture the Heath’ Exhibition.
Sunday 18th June 2023
12.00 – 5.00
Keats House and Garden
Keats Grove