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Margaret Kilgallen, Untitled, ca. 1999. Acrylic on wood panel, 17 1/4 x 7 1/2 in (43.815 x 19.05 cm). Courtesy the Estate of Margaret Kilgallen and Ratio 3, San Francisco.
Cheater Five, Courtesy the Estate of Margaret Kilgallen and Ratio 3, San Francisco. © Margaret Kilgallen
Kilgallen’s work is laced with historical developments. For example, in several works she depicts signs and shop fronts from the Mission District, which hint at a history of migration, civil rights and The American Dream. Sometimes hopefully and sometimes harrowingly, this is contrasted with the contemporary reality of San Francisco: a city that suffered badly in the nineties from drugs problems, the AIDS epidemic, homelessness and decay.
Kilgallen's oeuvre has two sides. On the one hand, she made many drawings on paper (often endpapers of books), wood and other cheap, found materials. These works are often slightly smaller in size. On the other hand her oeuvre consists of works such as street art works in public places such as parking garages, storefronts and trains. This makes her oeuvre vulnerable: either it consists of perishable materials or it is intended, due to its public nature, to eventually fade or be broken down.
