Teresa Booth Brown
On cover: “Incandescent” 2017 oil and collage on panel (detail)
Like the generous artist that she is, Teresa Booth Brown created a new body of work specifically for her solo exhibition Color at the Denver Botanic Gardens’ Gates Court Gallery. It was a heroic effort that kept her in the studio for almost a year. For the show, she worked in a larger format and arranged panels differently than her previous approach. She responded to the concrete walls, the expansive ceiling height and the natural light of the gallery in a way that tenderly guides the viewer through the space. Clearly, her paintings—which include collage, layers of rich luminescent oil paint, and geometric forms—are influenced by the iconoclastic Dada movement of the early 20th century, but they are far from anarchy or solely exercises in formal associations. Brown has the uncanny ability to create abstract paintings that are deeply emotionally charged. As she describes her process, the panels progress intuitively and pairings begin to “date,” which sometimes end in a split and a subsequent coupling. The colors alone (as the show’s title might suggest) evoke a strong response and appeal to the animal parts of our brains. The images that are obscured in the layers of collage and color have the quality of fading memories. For some reason, I hear melodious music when I look at her work. That is the power of her practice—tapping into some subconscious reminiscence that is impossible to place. Viewers are definitely rewarded for spending time with the nuances of the paintings, taking in the notes of color and form, of glow and shadow, and of cognition and confusion.
Kim Manajek
Associate Director of Exhibitions, Art & Interpretation Denver Botanic Gardens
Installation image “Color� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
Installation image “Color� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
Installation image “Color� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
I am fascinated with the shifting contiguity of representation and abstraction. I use painting, collage, and printmaking, to provoke moments when this dichotomy becomes unstable or collapses altogether. My works investigate when two dimensionality becomes three, when solid becomes fluid, when the familiar becomes strange. My paintings evoke diagrams, landscapes, interiors, architecture, and still lifes. Starting with a collage on wood panel, I develop a painting through the addition and subtraction of paint and drawing. I meditate on the organization of elements, adding and removing paint until form, color, and line balance several modalities of visual information. I use pencil line to delineate composition and create positive and negative space. As I build and remove layers of material, my intellect and emotion decide what emerges and what stays hidden. The result, never preconceived, emerges from this archaeological process of accretion and excavation. Teresa Booth Brown
“Area 17” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Chromophore” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Insoluminant” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Dichromacy” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Electromagnetic” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
Installation image “Color� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
Installation image “Color� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
“Equiluminant” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Fluorescent” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Infrared” 2016 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Luminescent” 2017 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“Ultraviolet” 2016 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
“X-ray” 2016 oil and collage on panel (diptych), 48”x24”
Installation image “Color” in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens and “Flexure” 2016, oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12”
Installation image “Color” in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens and “Fissibility” 2016, oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12”
Installation image “Color” in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens and “Torsion”, oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12”
Installation image “Color� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
Technicolor, 2016, oil and collage on wood panel, 12 x 60 inches (polyptych) Colorimetry, 2016, oil and collage on wood panel, 12 x 60 inches (polyptych)
facing page (l-r) : “Bisector” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Two Variables” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Fractions” oil and collage on panel (triptych), 12”x18” “Zero + One” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Associative” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Mathematics” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Numbers & Numerals” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Numbers & Pairs” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Intersection” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Perimeter” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Subtraction” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12” “Congruent” oil and collage on panel (triptych), 12”x18” “Points, Lines & Planes” oil and collage on panel (triptych), 12”x18” “Area” oil and collage on panel (diptych), 12”x12”
Installation image “Elctromagnetic� in Gates Garden Court Gallery at Denver Botanic Gardens
We are fascinated by Teresa’s work. We love that her work has an immediate impact while allowing for endless exploration. Much like metaphors for life, we find we can never fully know her art – we can investigate details without seeing the whole or we can enjoy the composition but the details elude us. Teresa Booth Brown begins her works with an element of collage on panel. After meditating on the original form, Brown builds up and tears down layers of paint, collage, and drawing, developing strong geometries of thinly veiled colors. Her background as a pattern-maker is evident in the layers she forms, from sheer to opaque, revealing the recessed imagery, much like fading memories. “The paintings are like little lives that grow, change, and evolve until finally achieving their own identity,” explains Brown. She sees her process as “a chance to make order out of chaos.” Listening to Brown, one feels that she and her work are almost collaborators, attempting to reveal a final visual truth. Mike & Warren
760 Santa Fe Drive ・Denver, CO 80204 ・303-635-6255 ・www.michaelwarrencontemporary.com
works by
Teresa Booth Brown May 24 – August 7, 2017 at
1007 York Street ・Denver, CO 80206・720-865-3500 ・ www.botanicgardens.org
all artwork photographed by the artist installation images are courtesy of Wes Magyar