Margi Scharff, who died on July 2 from ovarian cancer, was an itinerant artist in an all-but-forgotten tradition: not the sort who jets from fair to fair, commission to commission, chalking up an international network of curators and collectors, but one who actually travels the countryside, surrendering herself to the landscape, drawing inspiration from the people she meets and the objects that pass through her hands. I am sorry to say I discovered her work myself only a few months before her death — in her last exhibition at Overtones — but I was moved by the patient, heartfelt nature of the work, and the effusive admiration of Elizabeta Betinski, the gallery’s director. The pieces — intricate, colorful, lovingly crafted collages — were all small enough to fit in a suitcase and spoke, it seemed to me, of a life lived with passion,... More >>>