Teresa Tolentino transcends genre in her portraits, landscapes, and abstract paintings. Her treelines shudder in a ghostly haze. For her exclusive collection featured at Agora Gallery, floral abstractions denote delicate landscapes and arrangements. The viewer is both up close and far away, intimate and distant in these swirling botanical amalgamations. Working with acrylic paint, tile, glass, and found objects, Tolentino’s art has been featured at esteemed institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she participated in a virtual group show.
Tolentino is inspired by and seeks to reflect the beauty in the diversity of the world, using her platform to benefit marginalized communities — she is particularly passionate about the Spanish language, which she taught for over 30 years, and Huntington’s disease which affects many members of her family. Tolentino’s pieces offer a respite, but one that is firmly based in the ordinary reminding the viewer one need not go far to find the magic around us. Unfurled Grace droops and swirls with languid whites and purples in the impression of a flower. Other works invite the viewer to float across a cloud-like nebula in Neblina or shine like the glimmering edges and oceanic splashes of Polished Sea Glass. As captured moments of reverence, Tolentino’s works inspire wonder, awe, and appreciation for all that is beautiful in the world.
Tolentino lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio.
