TERRI ROLLAND
Biography
Terri Rolland has lived and worked in New Mexico for thirty six years. She received a BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia in 1977, and studied at Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy. She has taught at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and at Penn State University. She has exhibited her work in New York, Philadelphia, Denver and Santa Cruz, and at numerous New Mexico art venues, including the Harwood, CCA, and 516 Arts. She had a solo exhibit at the Roswell Museum in 2021 in conjunction with her year-long residence at the Roswell A-I-R program. She has received two residencies at MacDowell and one each at Ucross and Jentel. She received a grant from the Orlowsky Freed Foundation in 2023, and has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Gottlieb Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her work has been widely reviewed, including twice in Art in America. She was in a two-person exhibit in 2023 at Levy Gallery in Albuquerque, and exhibited paintings with four other grant winners at the Provincetown Art Museum in 2024. She is having a solo show at No Man's Land Gallery this May in Santa Fe.
www.terrirolland.com
Project Proposal
Ghost Monuments
In forty-five plus years of making paintings, I've been reducing image and subject toward the formation of an elemental picture. I believe that a painting should provide a visually surprising experience, at once bold and contemplative. I use abstract figuration with almost cartoony images that casually suggest land or monolithic shapes against sky. Employing two or three delineated areas of color, I eliminate psychic noise to build a vibrational optic intensity. Marks and dots and dashes animate the images and allow for another layer or subtle pulsation and movement. I am exploring ideas of monumental shapes and forms, ideas of inner and outer, and new surfaces and marks.
For years I searched for a paint material that wasn't toxic and overly refined. This led me to commercial clay wall paint, a material not unlike fresco in its matte luminosity and earthy physicality. It has a humble, honest presence that I want my paintings to embody. I add tints to create saturated colors against a neutral tone to build chromatic vitality, and apply numerous smeared layers with brushes and rubber tools, often further activating the paint by scraping or wiping. The result is a velvety, condensed surface that can seem alternately like flesh, concrete, or tree bark.
While my work is steeped in the tradition of abstraction and modernist landscape painting, I also consider my East-Coast, working-class roots and my feminist/butch/queer sensibility to be a major factor in the development of my aesthetic. In my studio practice, this means tactile, matte surfaces, a blunt, simplicity of form, and a straightforward use of materials. I deliberately use the word handsome to describe how I want a painting to look, as it implies a less gendered idea than the
word beauty, which connotes fancy, classy, and exclusive qualities I reject. The word handsome has it’s roots in hand as in manual work and physical agency, implying a down-to-earth sense of something substantial, well-formed, and striking. It reflects my resolute transgressive attitude.
I have been working at a small scale due to financial constraints this past year. While I love this work and want to continue the series, I need to create several larger works on panel where I can develop the surfaces and the impact of the images more. Also, at a larger scale, the materiality of the clay paint becomes even more pronounced and important. The action and density of the clay paint allows for more exploration and play when used liberally at a larger scale.
I am requesting funds to buy studio supplies, in particular wooden panels, paint, brushes and rubber spatulas—the basic needs of a studio painter. Also, some frames. I am excited to create this new body of paintings. I intend to then show this work to my new gallery in hopes of them scheduling a one-person exhibit for me in the near future. Thank you for considering me for a grant to continue my work.
Biography
Terri Rolland has lived and worked in New Mexico for thirty six years. She received a BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia in 1977, and studied at Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy. She has taught at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and at Penn State University. She has exhibited her work in New York, Philadelphia, Denver and Santa Cruz, and at numerous New Mexico art venues, including the Harwood, CCA, and 516 Arts. She had a solo exhibit at the Roswell Museum in 2021 in conjunction with her year-long residence at the Roswell A-I-R program. She has received two residencies at MacDowell and one each at Ucross and Jentel. She received a grant from the Orlowsky Freed Foundation in 2023, and has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Gottlieb Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her work has been widely reviewed, including twice in Art in America. She was in a two-person exhibit in 2023 at Levy Gallery in Albuquerque, and exhibited paintings with four other grant winners at the Provincetown Art Museum in 2024. She is having a solo show at No Man's Land Gallery this May in Santa Fe.
www.terrirolland.com
Project Proposal
Ghost Monuments
In forty-five plus years of making paintings, I've been reducing image and subject toward the formation of an elemental picture. I believe that a painting should provide a visually surprising experience, at once bold and contemplative. I use abstract figuration with almost cartoony images that casually suggest land or monolithic shapes against sky. Employing two or three delineated areas of color, I eliminate psychic noise to build a vibrational optic intensity. Marks and dots and dashes animate the images and allow for another layer or subtle pulsation and movement. I am exploring ideas of monumental shapes and forms, ideas of inner and outer, and new surfaces and marks.
For years I searched for a paint material that wasn't toxic and overly refined. This led me to commercial clay wall paint, a material not unlike fresco in its matte luminosity and earthy physicality. It has a humble, honest presence that I want my paintings to embody. I add tints to create saturated colors against a neutral tone to build chromatic vitality, and apply numerous smeared layers with brushes and rubber tools, often further activating the paint by scraping or wiping. The result is a velvety, condensed surface that can seem alternately like flesh, concrete, or tree bark.
While my work is steeped in the tradition of abstraction and modernist landscape painting, I also consider my East-Coast, working-class roots and my feminist/butch/queer sensibility to be a major factor in the development of my aesthetic. In my studio practice, this means tactile, matte surfaces, a blunt, simplicity of form, and a straightforward use of materials. I deliberately use the word handsome to describe how I want a painting to look, as it implies a less gendered idea than the
word beauty, which connotes fancy, classy, and exclusive qualities I reject. The word handsome has it’s roots in hand as in manual work and physical agency, implying a down-to-earth sense of something substantial, well-formed, and striking. It reflects my resolute transgressive attitude.
I have been working at a small scale due to financial constraints this past year. While I love this work and want to continue the series, I need to create several larger works on panel where I can develop the surfaces and the impact of the images more. Also, at a larger scale, the materiality of the clay paint becomes even more pronounced and important. The action and density of the clay paint allows for more exploration and play when used liberally at a larger scale.
I am requesting funds to buy studio supplies, in particular wooden panels, paint, brushes and rubber spatulas—the basic needs of a studio painter. Also, some frames. I am excited to create this new body of paintings. I intend to then show this work to my new gallery in hopes of them scheduling a one-person exhibit for me in the near future. Thank you for considering me for a grant to continue my work.