Teresa Magel’s work are not only definitions of what Femininity is but also a dialogue of what internal femininity looks like. The aesthetic beauty is visible because of how Teresa chooses to see the world. True feminine beauty is visible only because it is a reflection of all aspects of what she believes the essence of being female is. ” It is being beautiful outwardly because your soul is truly beautiful. It is displaying strength and persevering amidst vulnerability. It is defining and loving yourself un-apologetically. Its loving yourself unconditionally so that you may be love to others, Beauty.”

Teresa’s figures are often identifiable by their large coiffures of hair and their dreamlike eyes, lending them a sense of serenity and ardor. Teresa will also integrate elements of nature to elicit a feeling of passion and showing grace, such as butterflies, bees, dragonflies and hummingbirds.

Studios Inc presents the solo exhibition, REALITY SAVES, by Lori Raye Erickson. This work is a culmination of Erickson’s 3 years at Studios Inc with a focus on social issues, religious hypocrisy and political discord.

Erickson shares, “My tendency is to take a concept and construct it in whatever material best suits it’s message whether it be painting, sculpture or found objects. This exhibition consists of a variety of mediums that express my thoughts of the current climate in which we live.”

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The CURATOR’S CHOICE exhibition features multiple curators selections from the Studios Inc Collection. The participating curators will share what and why they chose a specific piece to showcase from the collection. Similar to the previous exhibition, THROUGH THE EYES OF A COLLECTOR, this exhibition will highlight different perspectives and reactions to artworks in the Studios Inc Collection.

Joann Quiñones’ exhibition is based on the concept of the grotto, an artificial or natural cavern used for both sanctuary and devotion. Rich in iconography and symbolism, La Gruta/The Grotto holds figurative sculptures, including “relics,” that explore the intricacies of race, class, gender, sexuality and religion — concepts that are highly ritualized. The work in the exhibition is an invitation to contemplate narratives of the domestic, family, and womanhood and how they are complicated by a history of slavery, stolen labor, and racism, particularly in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

In addition to these concepts, the materials selected by the artist have historical and personal significance. According to Quiñones, “I work with all materials, but consider ceramics and fibers to be foundational to my process and thinking because of their long history and aesthetic traditions in places like West Africa, Spain and the Americas.”

Joann Quiñones (they/them) is a mixed media artist who creates figurative work in order to explore Afro-Latinx identity. They were selected as an Emerging Artist of 2020 by Ceramics Monthly, were a Manifest Gallery Annual Prize Finalist, and received an Honorable Mention for the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award. Their work has been shown nationally, including in the 2020 NCECA Annual Exhibition, The Burdens of History. Quiñones has an MFA in Studio Art from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Alfred University, NY.

For high-resolution images, click here. Artist bio and additional images are available on our website. For a PDF of the press release, click here.

Judy Onofrio has always been in love with the stuff of the world. In the first three decades of her fifty-year career, she worked with clay, then built, painted, and often set on fire enormous sculptural constructions. For the past twenty years, she has told optimistic stories about strong women, lush gardens, and circus through her elaborately embellished figurative sculptures.

In 2008, when Onofrio was confronted by a serious illness, everything changed and she turned to her studio practice to process her experience of mortality, renewal and healing. The resulting series mirrored Onofrio’s own journey through illness to renewed health. Always a master of material, Onofrio began to subtly and organically integrate animal bones into her repertoire of sculpted, embellished and painted forms.

Then Onofrio took a leap of faith. The female figure, star of her work for decades, vanished. Sleek, vibrant color mutated into shades of slippery, creamy ivory, and bones became the material of choice. Onofrio’s increasing awareness of the physical and spiritual energy of life lived, held in the bones left behind in the earth, had a profound influence on her understanding of healing and enlightment.

In the series, Earth Bound, Judy Onofrio shows us a heartbreakingly beautiful, poignant and lush, delicate and seductive nature morte throbbing with life. Judy Onofrio’s baroque sculptures pulse with life and confirm that every death is essentially only a passage to a new beginning. Of this work, Judy Onofrio says, “To me, they feel like prayers.”

Onofrio has exhibited extensively nationally & internationally. Her work is in numerous private and public collections including National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Frederick R. Weisman Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND; Laumeier Sculpture Park and Museum, St. Louis, MO; McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, MN; The Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO; Hallmark, Kansas City, MO; Arabia Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, NY; Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AK; Greenville County Museum, Greenville, NC; Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada; Museum of Contemporary Art, Voor Hedendaagsa Kunst Het Kruithuis, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands; and others.

“My pastel drawings are based on direct observation and seek to tell a visual story about the beauty and depth of life around me, made precious by the truth of its transitory nature. I am interested in what is discovered and revealed during the process of slow looking over a long period of time, as the drawing evolves, creating itself, slowly, mark-by-mark.”

– Sherry Leedy

Sherry Leedy is best known for her day job as Director and Curator of Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art. Few know that she works the night shift drawing in her studio with soft pastels on paper.

Her drawings are connected to the long and rich tradition of Vanitas and the symbolic meaning of objects. Often loaded with personal meaning, the visual power of Leedy’s drawings resides in form, pattern, color, light, rhythm and line. Over the 30 years that Leedy has owned her gallery, this is her first one- person exhibition in the space she calls her own.

Leedy holds a BFA degree from the Kansas City Art Institute and a MFA from the University of Kansas. Her work is in the collections of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; the Los Angeles County Museum, LA, CA; University of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff; First National Bank, Columbia, MO; AT&T, Kansas City, MO and others.