Margaret Roleke is an activist artist, that creates work that reacts to our times and often speaks to the injustice in society.
In her studio practice Roleke has been creating fences and cages which reference the current situation at the border. Her printmaking has reinforced this theme. Roleke lived near Sandy Hook during the time of the shooting. Since then she has advocated for gun control and continues to create work out of spent shotgun shells in order to start a dialogue on this subject. Roleke donates a percentage of all sold work to organizations that work for gun control.
This past year Roleke began creating cyanotypes which explored our covid times and BLM protests. She moves back and forth between these themes creating art which many times reference several different pressing issues of our day.