British artist, Marion Piper (born 1963) has a disciplined drawing and painting practice of geometric abstraction. She reinterprets modernist tropes in a way that moves beyond compositional balance, repetition, or the infusion of emotion through colour which defined much of the mid-twentieth century Geometric Abstraction movements. While these aspects factor in Piper’s work, they carry a distinct twenty-first century quality where balance translates as transposition, repetition is a simulacral divergence where the same never returns in exactly the same way, the force of memory carries an emotional integrity for those who recognise it, and colour is a reflection of temporal experience where memory collides with the immediate moment of creation. Her geometric abstraction is one of infinite permutation. The grid, unlike modernism, is not the foundational structure of Piper’s work. It is the infrastructure over which line and shape move and evolves. Space is created as a result of this rhythm, rather than by intention. This focus on mutability and an incidental relationship to space sets Piper’s work apart from other expressions in the genre.
Virga Gallery Press is developing a first monograph on Piper’s work, with essay contributions from American art historians, Deanne Sole and Rosa Berland. Publication is expected for later in 2026. Piper exhibits internationally and across the UK. Piper’s work has been included in Anglian Abstract (2026) curated by Emma Howe, Director of The Minories in Colchester, UK. The invitational exhibition, designed as a celebration of the legacy of modernism in East Anglia, was a survey of contemporary artists in response to the work of Margaret Mellis, who was a key figure in the development of the artistic community in St Ives, UK, and later in Norfolk. Piper, as a member of the Drawing Collective, exhibited work in Fenestration (2025) at The Draw Space in Sydney, Australia curated by Lisa Pang and Munira Naqui and Confluence of Lines (2026) at Gallery Abstract Project, Paris, France curated by Bogumila Strojna and Munira Naqui. Piper’s work has been selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show three times, in 2025, 2024, and 2022.
Virga Gallery 