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The Cake Lady Returns and She Wants to Celebrate
August 21, 2021 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Traffic Zone Gallery presents The Cake Lady Returns and She Wants to Celebrate, an exhibition of new paintings by Bonnie Heller.
This is the latest installment in an ongoing series of paintings the artist has made with cake as the subject.
July 26-August 27, 2021
Gallery Hours: M-F, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and by appointment
Public Reception with the Artist
Saturday, July 31, 2021, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Request a Gallery Tour with the Artist
Bonnie Heller, Celebration with Three Cakes, 2021, Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement
Cakes have played a prominent role in my work for a very long time. Those cakes, which arrived unbidden in the still lifes and began to take on a life of their own, call to mind the celebrations and time markings in all people’s lives—birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, confirmation, gatherings after funerals, holidays, every days. Whether fabulously frosted and tantalizing lush or plain, sturdy and steadfast, these cakes take us through life’s rituals. Since cake is rarely eaten alone, the community that shares it is a vital piece of that cycle. Bonnie Heller
Bonnie Heller, Yellow Trio, 2021, Acrylic on canvas
Artist Biography
Bonnie Heller has been making art her entire life. Any material is fodder for her art making. Primarily a painter, she also works with discarded items and three-dimensional forms, glass and vintage beads, monoprinting and collage. She has exhibited all over the world and is known locally for her lushly painted cakes, still lifes and figurative paintings. Her studio in the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Arts is brimming with colorful, joyful paintings and sculpture, outrageous props, vivid paints and a grand variety of tools. Her work has traveled across the United States in the National Sketchbook Project Tour, across the ocean to Israel, at In Book Form, and was shown locally in The Northside Today: Memory, Place, Home and Community at The Homewood Studios and the Minnesota State Fair, to name a few. Recently she participated in Diverse Inquiries: Curious Passions at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Art4Shelter, Burnet Gallery, SAMEE Sustainable Acts: Mother Earth’s Embrace at Hamline University, Or Chadash, A New Light, Unfiltered, The Waters of Creation and most recently, Voices of Wisdom. Gratitutions, a series of 100 small painting on quotidian moments was presented as a solo show at Traffic Zone Center for Visual Arts Gallery and repeated as Gratitutions Revisited two years later in St. Paul. Recent solo shows include The Cake Lady Speaks, a delicious exhibition of 25 large celebratory cakes and Opening Night: The Conversation, a series of large scale paintings honoring art audiences.
Bonnie Heller, Celebration with Chocolate Cake, 2021, Acrylic on canvas
Mission Statement
Traffic Zone Gallery is operated by Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art. TZCVA supports the work of mid-career professional artists with high-quality, affordable studios and the engagement of audiences with gallery exhibitions, open studio events, art classes and workshops.
https://www.trafficzoneart.com/