NEW YORK, N.Y.- Forum Gallery presents Out of Sight: Imaginary Landscapes by Tula Telfair, an exhibition of twelve panoptic paintings that transport the viewer to emotive land formations derived entirely from the artist’s mind. Representing both a place and moment in time not reachable by mankind, these landscapes offer a private glance at the beauty and majesty of nature.

In this new body of work, the artist introduces the viewer to sweeping landscapes dominated by the vagaries of weather. More than a single moment in time, each scene is a continuum that develops a narrative of the past, present and future, indicative of nature itself. Clouds gather, the sky grows dark and shadows spread over the land predicting the wrath of nature. A sense of suspense and wonder are evoked by these places Telfair constructs from her own memories and experiences.

The places Telfair depicts are physically withdrawn from mankind. Paintings such as Exploring New Codes and The Chemistry of Time lack evidence of a human presence, yet at the same time produce a yearning to travel to these untouched and grand places.

Darkness envelops the mountainous landscape and the foreboding sky foretells the austerity of nature in Built Exclusively for Delight and Intimacy Gradient II. Telfair’s focus on the temerity of nature dominates this body of work and exudes a sense of startling beauty.

While Telfair’s landscapes are an amalgam of memory and imagination, they speak personally to each of us. Every painting conjures a real time and place in our memories. In addition, in such paintings as The Proper Arrangement and Explaining Techniques of Illusion, Telfair takes her vistas to the brink of fantasy, painting with a surrealistic palette and ominous mood befitting that of a science fiction story.

Telfair’s landscapes are lush and romantic. They embody the emotion of the individual and the omnipotence of the sublime and unite both in their most beautiful and tumultuous moments.

Tula Telfair spent her childhood in West Central Africa. She earned her BFA from Moore College of Art in 1984 and received an MFA from Syracuse University as a Graduate Fellow in 1986. She is a Professor of Art and Director of the Studio Art Program at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, while she lives and paints in New York City. She has shown extensively in one-person and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad, and has work in numerous public and private collections around the world.