Painting on large-scale canvases, often created by connecting multiple canvases together, Teresa Greve Wolf urges viewers to stop and take notice of the cause at hand. Her story draws the viewer in, and the issues she paints are very real. It is through her art she uses her voice in hope for positive change. Many of her pieces use mix media to emphasize and create another layer to her story. In her most recent piece, “Threatening Beauty,” Teresa uses a plastic film to create the waves of the ocean to emphasize how we are masking this global issue. In her piece “Women. Life. Freedom”, she incorporates fabrics, collaged imagery of women living in Iran, and a Hijab hanging from the canvas to call attention to recent human rights issues and current events.
Her use of bright bold colors is another way she tries to connect with the viewer. In her piece, “I can’t breathe,” she uses color to grab the viewers’ attention and creates a dramatic picture of the death of George Floyd. She paints bloody broken letters of Justice to re-emphasize how our system and our global society is desperately in need of change.
Her calling for change comes from living during the reign of Augusto Pinochet. Born in Santiago, Chile, Teresa and her husband left the country right around the time he came into power. Teresa states, “This was a difficult time for many because they could not speak their truth without mysteriously disappearing or getting thrown in jail.” Many of her pieces depict the struggles of the Chilean people during this time as well as her own struggles of missing her homeland.
