Calliope Gallery will present “Atmospheric Connections: an artist’s journey,” featuring new paintings by local artist Bonnie Teitelbaum, opening Saturday, Aug.16, with a reception from 4-7 p.m.. The exhibition will run through Sept. 22.
This marks the second exhibition this year at Calliope featuring what gallery owners Barbara Harnack and Michael Lancaster term an “outsider artist” – a professional artist with no formal academic training. However, Teitelbaum herself prefers to be recognized simply as a fine artist rather than categorized under the “outsider” or “Art Brut” labels.
“I am inspired by nature and quiet reflection. I try to put that feeling in my work,” Teitelbaum said. “My paintings are open for interpretation because they are abstract. They are open storyboards for the viewer to find their own meaning.”
Teitelbaum’s creative process is intuitive and responsive.
“I try not to have any intentions. I start out with a color palette and hope it sticks with me. When I apply paint, the paint shows me something. I respond and add more,” she said. “The work unfolds with this back-and-forth process. Sometimes this process is easy and sometimes not so much. When the work paints itself, it is a gift, but at times it takes the long way around the barn.”
Working primarily with layers of acrylic on panel and pours of acrylic resin, Teitelbaum often creates large-scale pieces, sometimes spanning 3-5 panels. Her work has been a fixture at Calliope Gallery since 2021, with Harnack and Lancaster noting that “even her large paintings have been collected impulsively by total strangers.”
Gallery owners Harnack, a Parsons School of Design graduate, and Lancaster, a fourth-generation artist, have made showcasing self-taught artists a particular focus this year, drawn to what they describe as “raw” and authentic artistic expression.
Calliope Gallery is located at 2876 Hwy 14N in Madrid. The exhibition opening reception is free and open to the public.
