By Susan Jedrzejewski, McColl Center for Visual Art McColl Center for Visual Art is pleased to welcome Margarita Cabrera as the next Knight Artist-in-Residence at McColl Center for Visual Art who will begin her term at the Center on January 9, 2012. Before she arrives at the Center, her work can be seen in “The Space in Between” exhibit at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC through February 19, 2012.

Mexican-American artist, activist and organizer Margarita Cabrera orchestrates collaborative projects that live at the intersection of craft traditions, immigration policy, displaced peoples and border politics. Not content to make art about social issues, her projects serve as actions into the creation of fair working conditions and the protection of immigrant rights. The ensuing labor echoes that of factory workers – producing soft, sagging objects that reflect the unseen people behind the production.

Seeking to raise awareness as a strategy of survival, Cabrera explains, “Vinyl is often used to cover surfaces. I wanted to use it in the opposite way, to expose everything.” Her work is a platform to imagine in, and through the margins. It activates the thorny, but fertile space between manufacture and consumption, first world and third world, Mexico and the United States, and those trying to preserve cultural roots while laboring for a better life.

Cabrera was born in 1973 in Monterrey, Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. as a child. She achieved her MFA at Hunter College, NY and currently lives in the border city of El Paso, TX. She will be in residence McColl Center for Visual Art from January 9 through February 19, 2012 and will be participating in Open Studio Saturdays on January 15 and February 5, 2012. During Open Studio Saturdays all of the current resident artists work in their studios with the doors open from 11 AM to 6 PM. During this time, the public has the opportunity to meet the artists and learn about their art as well as view the current exhibition.