Mini Interview with Margaux Ogden & Tess Bilhartz
Favorite Bob Dylan song
Margaux Ogden Too many to pick just one. I’d like to tell you my favorite from each album, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll tell you my first favorite, which is “Girl from the North Country.”
Tess Bilhartz A few weeks ago I announced on Instagram that my favorite Dylan song is “Visions of Joanna,” so I will stick with that.
Favorite drink
TB Fav drink has always been, will always be, a margarita.
MO Margarita. Classic margs, canned margs, bodega margs, top shelf margs, bottom shelf margs. I enjoy them all.
Favorite thing about the other’s work
MO I love how open Tess’s practice is. Whatever the painting requires, she is open to. Whether that means taking the painting off the stretcher, putting it back on, painting with colored pencils, with oil, with acrylic, painting on paper, on canvas, on board, collaging elements. Nothing is off limits. As a result, the paintings are really generous. It’s inspiring.
TB I’m trying to think of something that spans Maggie’s work through many iterations. It has to be that special touch that only certain painters have and that I think must be related to rhythm. Whether its scrawling lines on raw canvas or luminous flat shapes of color, she always arrives at a visual rhythm that I’d call elegant in its pared-down precision. Things repeat, but there is no monotony, and I’m never bored.
In the Blonde on Blonde press release, past experiences traveling together — what is one of your favorite memories from those experiences?
MO Honestly, visiting Portland for Blonde on Blonde was really special because it’s the first time we’ve done a two-person show together. We flew with the paintings in our luggage, spent a day installing them with Derek and a couple of his kids, and hung out with close friends who live there. It all felt really good.
TB I was going to mention Marfa, but our trips to Portland do stand out. West Texas in 2014 — we drove to Big Bend down the emptiest stretch of highway that I’ve ever seen, searched hard in the desert darkness for the Marfa lights, and toured the Judd Foundation. Seeing the work out there was the first time that I ever understood it.
There is an emphasis on the ‘sibling energy’ you have as close friends – could you elaborate on this?
MO We mentioned siblings in the press release as a metaphor to suggest, in simple terms, how to look at the work together, since initially it might feel like an odd pairing.
TB I have a number of friends in my life who are family, and Maggie is one of them. We’re both in it for the long haul as artists and always have been, and I think that kind of attitude bonds you together. We both heard “no” so many times that it became a running joke – joke’s on them. We dream together and brainstorm how to get the things that we want. I ran track for many years, and running alongside athletes you admire can ignite you and pull you along. That same shared intensity in pursuit of a common goal can happen in the studio, and I feel it in ours.
Any words or influences that come to mind relating to your work or how you feel about the others’ work.
TB My approach to making art might best be described as a longtime psychodrama with myself. I’m always feeling around for something that I don’t yet know how to name. I’m influenced by storytellers of all kinds, from medieval painters to sci-fi writers, who use the structures they were given to capture feelings that haunt and confound us.
MO My approach is pretty direct. I use watered down acrylic paint, applied in one layer, so it can feel performative in the studio. Like a tightrope walk. The influences vary from ancient frescoes to sidewalk utility graffiti.
Could you share some thoughts studio practice?
MO We are both pretty religious about going to the studio. We went to the same graduate program, which put a lot of emphasis on studio time. Some mornings I’ll start by drawing or watercoloring for the first couple hours. Other days I’m able to jump right back into a painting. It depends where I am in the process.
TB My studio practice rests on extensive drawing and brainstorming. The works on paper in Blonde on Blonde are a part of that – you could say that they’re where the rest of the work begins. I start loose and all over the place, without rules, just to see what moves me and what works. I follow the trail from there.
Blonde on Blonde: Margaux Ogden and Tess Bilhartz is on view at SE Cooper Contemporary until August 30, 2025