Shelter Islander’s work unveiled at hospital: Margaret Garrett’s glass mural brightens new complex

Island artist Margaret Garrett has completed her first large-scale public work, “Whispers at Dusk,” a 40-foot-long glass mural newly installed at NYU Langone’s new hospital complex in Garden City.

Commissioned by the NYU Langone Art Program and Collection, the work was fabricated in collaboration with Glasmalerie Peters Studios in Germany. Whispers at Dusk spans eight non-reflective glass panels that are printed with multiple layers of digital UV print combined with glass etching done by hand to reflect the brushstrokes and textures of the original painting.

“This work seeks to capture the evanescent quality of gray, purple, and pink forms that appear like mysterious drawings in the sky at twilight,” Ms. Garrett said. “I’m thrilled to see this work realized and in an environment where it may offer some solace to patients, visitors, and hospital staff alike.”

Islanders have seen Ms. Garrett’s work exhibited at the Shelter Island Historical Society and in local galleries on the East End and in New York City. Her work has also been included in the Armory Show, Art on Paper, the Dallas Art Fair, and the Contemporary Print Fair at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

In her Silver Beach studio, she creates paintings, videos, collages and prints, many suggesting movement, drawing on her career as a ballet dancer.

In 2017, Ms. Garrett returned to dancing as a way to inspire new works: She began filming herself dancing and using the video clips as material to create moving video collages.

For the project “The 19,” which was presented at Planthouse in New York City, she took this approach one step further in working with 19 poses that had been selected by the Martha Graham Dance Company, as a way to honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, securing women the right to vote.