M o t h e r l o a d
May 24 – June 18, 2016
Interlaced (triptych), oil on paper mounted on canvas, 60 x 120 inches, 2015
“Considering that for more than a decade Teresa Dunn’s work has consisted of complex figural compositions, it is understandable that her audience might feel a bit uneasy with this new work. At first glance it looks like a substantial change. But closer examination will reassure the skeptical that these paintings and studies represent modest re-considerations made well within Dunn’s familiar sensibility. They are a continuation of the other-worldly sense her work has always addressed, though adapted to an unpacking of her painterly process. It is as if the loose outlines lying beneath her earlier compositions are now spreading like vines across a long established garden.”
“To the extent that the new paintings contain hints of recognizable yet incongruent imagery — still-life, figures, a visual flow that transitions in several directions at once — they are a continuation of the same dream structure, but rendered this time more susceptible to serendipity and surface pattern. Or to put it another way, Dunn’s new imagery is more in synch with the ebb and flow of actual painting.” —Peter Malone, artist and writer
“M o t h e r l o a d,” Teresa Dunn’s third solo exhibition at FIRST STREET GALLERY, represents the artist’s heightened awareness of the sensual world after giving birth to and raising her child. By building visual tensions through merging spaces that accumulate over time, Dunn rejects the rapid pace and virtual remove embodied by much contemporary social interaction. Instead she embraces deeper connection through lingering processes that tease object-hood, time, and place without fully divulging their authority through improvised and orchestrated responses to evolving and syncopated moments.
Teresa Dunn is a three time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Fellowship. She exhibits widely with a recent 2015 solo exhibition “Ebb and Ember” at Hooks-Epstein Galleries in Houston, TX. Visit Dunn’s website for more images and complete bio: www.teresadunnpaintings.com.
