State of Alarm: a solo show featuring Margaret Roleke
State of Alarm: Margaret Roleke
March 27 - May 10, 2026
Located in The Workshop Gallery, Building 3.
Opening Reception: Friday March 27 from 4-7 pm
free Artist Talk: Sunday, April 12 at 2 pm
Regular Gallery Hours from 12-4 pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Free on-site parking available. 493 West Main Street, Building 3, Cheshire, CT. Details at ballandsocket.org
About The Show:
State of Alarm brings together textile works, wall reliefs, video, and cyanotypes that confront the persistent climate of gun violence, war, and political instability shaping contemporary America. Through materials that carry both symbolic and physical weight—fabric, Kevlar, brass, and spent shotgun shells—the exhibition examines a nation caught between protection and threat, identity and fracture.
Textile pieces use stitching, layering, and fragmented national imagery to suggest both repair and rupture. Wall reliefs constructed from brass, shell components, and toy army men shimmer at a distance, drawing viewers in through visual seduction before revealing their origins. The cyanotype introduces a quieter, ghosted presence—images that feel archival, exposed, or unsettled.
Rather than offering resolution, State of Alarm reflects the constant hum of anxiety embedded in daily life. The work asks viewers to consider how systems of power, weaponry, and nationalism are normalized—and how materials associated with harm might be transformed into spaces for reflection. Through accumulation, labor, and repetition, the exhibition creates a visual tension between beauty and violence, inviting a pause within the noise.
About the Artist:
Margaret Roleke is a Brooklyn- and Connecticut-based artist originally from Long Island, New York. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, where she will work through June 2026.
Roleke earned her M.F.A. from Long Island University, C.W. Post, and her B.A. from Marymount Manhattan College. She also studied at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her work has been exhibited nationally, including at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Katonah Museum of Art, Pen + Brush Gallery, and WhiteBox in New York City. In 2024, she received an Artist Respond Grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her outdoor sculpture Tower was installed in Jackie Robinson Park in Harlem in April 2025. Past residencies include the Vermont Studio Center, Teton ArtLab, ArtPort Kingston, and 4Heads Portal on Governors Island.
Learn more: margaretroleke.com
