Teal Me Now
Heidi Gallery
310 Eisenhower Parkway, Livingston
Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m-4:30 p.m.
Closes: May 17
Artist Talk: May 17 at 2 p.m.
Teal is a chameleon, a trickster, a changeling. It’s found in peacock feathers, coral-reef waters and male teal-head ducks. Also, pigeon neck feathers. Once rare, painters can now buy ready-to-go tubes of teal. Many artists prefer to mix their own–some cerulean blue, some phthalo green.
The not-for-profit Heidi Gallery is currently showcasing the elusive color in Teal Me Now, a 57-piece exhibition of painting, mixed media, fiber, sculpture, and photography.
Why teal and why now?
“Teal was chosen for 2026 by a couple of the color trend companies,” said Heidi Gallery Manager and Curator Jeremy Moss, who contributes two richly textured paintings–golden shore or sky, teal water or trees–each with an air of mystery.
Moss and exhibition co-juror Geralyn Robinson have long debated the color. “Some artists see teal as more blue,” he said. “Other artists see more green.”
Be it green or blue, Teal Me Now gloriously celebrates teal in all its seductive modes. In Leslie Goldman’s exuberant Aperol Spritz, a stemmed glass tumbler explodes with orange spirits, a yellow lemon slice and a red-and-white barbershop-swirled straw against a teal backdrop. Bursts of primary color punctuate the canvas.
“Teal is vibrant,” Goldman said. “It can be challenging to maintain its space as the background of a painting,”
She chooses opposite tones on the value scale for her main focus. “I work with very light values and very dark values for the subject,” she said. “Teal becomes the medium value and knows its place in the background.”
Nearby, Heidi Hooper’s engaging Fennec Fox–all long ears and questioning eyes–stares out from its teal setting. It’s executed in dryer lint. Her social media shows how. Tricia Goginsky’s Memory’s Garden Always in Bloom and Pollinators’ Garden juxtapose richly colored peonies and poppies, red oranges, pinks against her teal background.
More disorienting among the teal-as-background works are two smaller paintings by Cat DeLett. In her enigmatic The Clock Is Striking 13, an angular society matron, elegant in cream/yellow silk, pearls and a too-youthful feathered hair ornament casts her glance downward. Her disjointed hand foreshadows the ominous. Script runs up, then down the painting’s left and right edges: It was a bright cold day in April. The clocks were striking thirteen–the opening of George Orwell’s 1984.
“It’s that small, unsettling detail where the clocks are striking thirteen, signaling that the world has quietly slipped out of joint,” DeLett said. There is a sense that something’s coming.
In Winter Oranges, three oranges are offset on a teal plate atop a winter-white tablecloth. Here, point of view unsettles. The dark plate edge is a frame for a still life against a white background, drama in deceptive simplicity.
Staying with the intimate works is 18-year old Maia Konowitz’s charming Brooklyn in Bloom, another celebration, here of spring. The painting is alive in pink blossoms, nascent green leaves and teal windows, stoops and shadows. It may remind you of American Impressionist Maurice Prendergast’s flags along Fifth Avenue. It shades blue.
Colleen Roche’s photograph In the Shadows is all subtle angles and cast shadows. It raises unanswerable questions and shades green.
Please bring kids! They’ll like when humor enters the exhibit: In Terri Binder’s Swimming Upstream a pinkish-reddish fish swims against the current. A blue school goes the other way. Monica Duffy Mangan’s Tea Tee’s makes you wonder, why didn’t I do that with my Tetley or Twinings?
Let’s turn to just four of many striking landscapes. Acclaimed fiber artist Ellen Weisbord offers two masterwork variations on the Colorado River Headlands, Flying Carpet 1 and 2. Her teal river wends a sinuous way. You can run a hand along its route (encouraged), a visual and sensual experience.
Maria Savidis-Markatos’ two show-stopping photographs were shot at opposite ends of the planet; Glacial Expression (cover image) in Patagonia and Blue Mountains of Ketchikan in Alaska. Savidis-Markatos orchestrates dizzyingly complex photographic processes. Each image captures the splendor of our (teal?) blue planet, revealing teal in different moods. Blue-leaning Glacial Expressions awes. Green-leaning Blue Mountains transforms water, conifer-covered valley and mountain peaks into an abstraction of vast geometries.
Spend time with intriguing surreal works and gardens and many surprising sea, land and cityscapes. Beautiful abstractions immerse us in teal’s maddening glory. Artist and SOPAC Board Chair Aida Jones’ Refraction and Immersion goes deep into shade shifting colors.
Joy Orie’s trio of reefs and Susan Gilli’s Ambiance and Underworld plunge us into warm waters. Debbie Gibbs’ banded waves of Teal As A Rhythm evoke teal’s musical qualities, color as sound with everchanging pitches, accents, tones and beats.
