January 15 – March 15, 2026
Recording of Virtual Artist Talk: passcode: T!SM=Ke3
Thursday, February 5, 7–8 p.m.
Artist Closing Reception: Sunday, March 15, 2–4 p.m.
In celebration to our country’s 250th founding, the Clare Gallery is excited to share our year of exhibits celebrating voices that “were left out” at the creation of our country. Our first exhibit was Inspired Assemblages, works by Terese Newman.
Terese Newman is an American artist who grew up in a mixed-race Mexican-American household in Southern California. She left for a New England college at age 19, and though she did not find many others with her background, she was able to keep her Mexican roots alive through her artwork. Her memories are filled with Mexican folk music and dancing; delicious homemade food and sweets; as well as highly colorful and diversely patterned clothing and fabric. Newman recalls “loud family celebrations and events, where color was a main ingredient of emotion—mostly the extremes of joyfulness and sorrowfulness.” These memories are the inspiration for her work, creating narratives through their vivid color, play on identity, and symbolic textures, patterns, and words.
Newman’s work was filled with symbolism, veneration, and humor. She was raised a Catholic but currently sees herself as spiritual. She believes her connection to a higher power influences her work by guiding, challenging, and supporting her creative choices. She regularly uses symbols like “guides and spirits,” as well as religious symbols like “crosses, wings, and saints,” to create works that use reverence, as well as humor to question organized religion and/or power structures that can lead to feelings of victimhood. Her cigar box collages were examples of the play between spirituality and empowerment. Some of Newman’s works included her own female saints: “For many years I felt like a female victim…I have since come to the realization that I can empower myself…my superpower is that I am a creator, and all that I have created is mine, and it’s endless. I want to help my fellow Mexican-Americans, but…I believe there’s a way to help ALL that need it …sometimes it’s a simple phrase, or a reminder of others who have had some successes.”
Newman’s digital paintings inhabited layered spaces that were filled with intense color, textures, and pattern—similar to her cigar boxes. Additionally, they came into being through the creative practice of trusting in a higher power. Newman explained: “These are organic manifestations of internal conversations. They are layered colors and shapes, assembled the same way as the collage cigar boxes. The conversations I have with (internal voice-spirit-beings-angels-higher self-etc.) are simply goading me on to uncover or unveil that which already exists.” The interplay between both bodies of work helped Newman keep her Mexican-American roots alive and close to her heart.
Newman has an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, and a BFA from the University of Connecticut. She has worked as assistant to Sol LeWitt, and she has developed her own successful creative art and design business based in Windsor, CT. Newman has exhibited in NYC, New Mexico, and Connecticut. Her works are in the collections of the Bruce Family, the Sol LeWitt Collection, the Shenan Collection, and dozens of collections throughout the U.S. For more information visit her website teresenewmanart.com
