Sorelle Gallery is pleased to announce a feature exhibition showing the abstract works of Ragella Rourke and Teodora Guererra at their New Canaan Gallery. Both Rourke & Guererra create abstract works that are the result of adding and subtracting to the canvas, resulting in complex and intriguing compositions.

Teodora Guererra’s current paintings are the result of experimenting with layering, pouring and dripping techniques. “I like layering emotive colors to achieve striking textural and dense paintings that are at times exuberant, playful and joyful, and at other moments fraught with tension and brooding”. The result is a composition that reveals the relationship of the artist and the paint, challenging the viewer Guererra says, “The layers and drips merging reveal areas of what lies beneath, much like the internal and external forces within us, exposing an echo of memory. Like the layers of an onion, as we peal back each layer another identity emerges.”

Ragella Rourke’s works begin with a layer of plaster applied to the surface of the work. To which the artist draws, scratches, sands and incises. As color washes, painted and other elements are added to the work, its surface continues to reveal the history of the painting. The end result is as the artist states, “ever something that I logically calculate, but rather a long string of chances, thoughts and guesses”.

Guererra received her Bachelor’s in Arts Education from Southern Connecticut University. After graduating, Guererra lived and worked in Tucson, Arizona before returning to the Northeast, earning her MFA from the College of Saint Rose and Skidmore College in 2008. She currently splits her time between upstate New York and Connecticut.

Rourke earned her Bachelor’s in Painting from State University of New York at Albany in 1998. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows around the country, receiving wide spread attention in California. She currently lives and works in upstate New York with her family.