Artist Statement
My work explores the quiet strength that rises from survival, disability, and the natural world. As a multidisciplinary artist, I create sculptural paintings and mixed-media works that merge heavy-bodied acrylics, resin, fibers, and found objects into textured landscapes of emotion. Each piece begins as an internal conversation—an attempt to translate memory, resilience, and the body’s limitations into something tactile and alive.
Living with a traumatic brain injury and a rare autoinflammatory disease reshaped not only my physical capabilities but my entire relationship with creativity. When my hands could no longer hold a brush in traditional ways, I shifted to tools that let me keep making: piping bags, palette knives, silicone implements, even my fingertips. What began as an adaptation evolved into a visual language defined by movement, depth, and sculptural form.
Nature anchors my work. Shorelines, marshlands, weathered textures, and floral forms appear not as literal scenes but as emotional translations—echoes of places that offered comfort and recovery. I build each piece layer by layer, the way memory gathers meaning over time. Texture becomes testimony: evidence of pressure, softness, disruption, and renewal.
My practice has taken me from my Long Island studio to exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including presentations at the Haegeumgang Theme Museum in South Korea, Belskie Museum of Art, Tortuga Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Long Island, The Reboli Center, and One Art Space Gallery in NYC. These opportunities reflect the universality I hope my work carries—an ability to connect with people through form, resilience, and the shared experience of navigating a complicated world.
Ultimately, my work is an invitation to slow down, step closer, and feel the story beneath the surface. I hope each piece offers a moment of recognition—an emotional thread that reminds us we are never truly alone in our journey.
Artist Biography
Loretta Oberheim is a Long Island–based multidisciplinary artist whose sculptural paintings and mixed-media works explore resilience, disability, memory, and the natural world. Using heavy-bodied acrylics, resin, fibers, wire, and found materials, she creates richly textured surfaces that blur the line between painting and sculpture. Her practice transforms lived experience—trauma, adaptation, healing—into expressive forms that invite both contemplation and connection.
Loretta’s creative roots trace back to her early years and formal training in Textile/Surface Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), followed by an 18-year career as a designer in the floorcovering industry. A traumatic brain injury and subsequent diagnosis of Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndrome (CAPS) required her to rethink how she made art. Through experimentation with accessible tools and alternative techniques, she developed the distinct sculptural acrylic style that defines her work today.
Her artwork has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including in esteemed venues such as the Haegeumgang Theme Museum in South Korea, Belskie Museum of Art, Tortuga Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Long Island, The Reboli Center, and One Art Space Gallery in New York City. She also exhibits regularly on Long Island through Patchogue Arts Council, Gallery North, Indigo Arts, and the South Bay Art Association, where she serves as Website Committee Chair.
In addition to her visual work, Loretta is the author of This Too Shall Pass – A Memoir of Survival, Loss, and Finding Purpose, a book that expands on the personal narratives that shape her artistic practice. Her work—whether sculptural, painted, or written—is rooted in a desire to foster empathy, accessibility, and connection through art.
She creates from her home studio with the loyal supervision of her two dogs, Shea and Anna, who proudly consider themselves her unofficial creative directors.
Artist CV
AWARDS
2025 "66th Annual Members Exhibition" South Bay Art Association, Bellport, New York, United States
1st Place - Sculpture
2025 "Wet Paint Festival" The Reboli Center, Stony Brook, New York, United States
2nd Place
2024 “34th Annual Judged Art Show” BACCA, Babylon, New York, United States
2nd Place - Sculpture
Honorable Mention - Sculpture
2024 Paint the Great South Bay, Patchogue Art Council, Patchogue, New York, United States
People’s Choice
2024 “65th Annual Members Exhibition” South Bay Art Association, Bellport, New York, United States
2nd Place - Sculpture
2023 Inspiration Rediscovered - Mixed Media Masterpieces, Westbury Arts, Westbury, New York, United States
1st Place - Sculpture
2023 “Life is Art” 9th Annual Geoje International Art Festival, Haegeumgang Theme Museum, South Korea,
Curators Award
2023 “64th Annual Members Exhibition” South Bay Art Association, Bellport, New York, United States
2nd Place - Sculpture
2023 “33rd Annual Judged Art Show” BACCA, Babylon, New York, United States
2nd Place - Sculpture
2023 “Childhood Memories” Mills Pond Gallery, St. James, New York, United States
Honorable Mention – Sculpture
2023 “14th Annual Abstracts Art Exhibition” LightSpaceTime Art, Global
Honorable Mention - Sculpture
2022 “32nd Annual Judged Art Show” BACCA, Babylon, New York, United States
1st Place - Sculpture
3rd Place - Sculpture
PUBLICATIONS
2025 "Pen & Ink", Volume IV
2025 "This Too Shall Pass - A Memoir of Survival, Loss, and Finding Purpose."
2025 Canvas Rebel
2025 Bold Journey Magazine
2024 The Art Queens Quarterly, Volume I
2024 Canvas Rebel Magazine
APPOINTMENTS
2025 Trustee - South Bay Art Association, Bellport, New York
2024 Co-Curator – SEA to Shining SEA , Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington, New York
2023 Judge – 58th Annual Outdoor Art Show and Music Festival, Gallery North, East Setauket, New York
2023 Curator- South Bay Art Association's 63rd Annual Membership Exhibition, Bellport, New York
2021- 2024- Treasurer - South Bay Art Association, Bellport, New York
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 "Echoes of Nature: Serenity & Strength", SEPA Mujer, Patchogue, New York, United States
2022 “Two Artists Meet Journeys Unbound” Harborfields Library, Greenlawn, New York, United States
2022 “Tangibile” Solo Show, The Cheese Patch, Patchogue, New York, United States
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 "6th Annual Invitational", The Altelier at Flowerfield, St. James, New York, United States
2025 "Exquisite Corpse", MOCA LI, Patchogue, New York, United States
2025 "Wet Paint Festival" The Reboli Center, Stony Brook, New York, United States
2025 "Patchworks", MOCA LI, Patchogue, New York, United States
2025 "66th Annual Members Exhibition", South Bay Art Association, Bellport, New York, United States
2025 "Language of Flowers", Mills Pond Gallery, St. James, New York, United States
2025 "Paint the Great South Bay", MOCA LI, Patchogue, New York, United States
2025 11th Geoje International Art Festival of the Haegeumgang Theme Museum in Geoje, South Korea
2025 "World of Color II", D Veldez Gallery, Huntington, New York, United States
2024 Deck the Halls, Gallery North, East Setauket, New York, United States
2024 “34th Annual Judged Art Show”, BACCA, Babylon, New York, United States
2024 “Blue Mind”, South Bay Art Association Satellite Gallery, Patchogue, New York, United States
2024 “SEA to Shining SEA” Fundraiser, Sea of Visibility, Huntington, New York, United States
2024 “Artists' Choice”, b.j. Spoke gallery, Huntington, New York, United States
2024 “Paint the Great South Bay”, MOCA LI, Patchogue, New York, United States
2024 “Wet Paint Festival”, The Reboli Center, Stonybrook, New York, United States
2024 “64th Annual Judged Members Exhibit” Bellport, New York, United States
2024 “Repurpose & REimagine” Fundraiser, CEED, Brookhaven, New York, United States
2024 10th Geoje International Art Festival of the Haegeumgang Theme Museum in Geoje, South Korea
2023 Deck the Halls, Gallery North, East Setauket, New York, United States
2023 “Into the Spines & on the Stacks”, MOCA LI, Patchogue, New York, United States
Ongoing travel exhibition through the Dewey Decimal System
2023 “Inspiration Rediscovered - Mixed Media Masterpieces”, Westbury Arts, Westbury, New York, United States
2023 Community Sculpture Installation, Center for Environmental Education & Discovery, Brookhaven, New York,
United States
2023 Sculpture Garden Installation, Patchogue Arts Council, Patchogue, New York, United States
2023 9th Geoje International Art Festival of the Haegeumgang Theme Museum in Geoje, South Korea
2023 “63rd Annual Judged Members Exhibit”, Bellport, New York, United States
2023 “33rd Annual Judged Art Show”, BACCA, Babylon, New York, United States
2023 “Childhood Memories” Mills Pond Gallery, St James, New York, United States
2023 “14th Annual Abstracts Art Exhibition” LightSpaceTime Art, Global
2023 “Mixed Media Masterpieces” The Belskie Museum of Art, Closter, New Jersey, United States
2023 “She/Her/Hers” Islip Arts Council Gallery, Islip, New York, United States
2022 “32nd Annual Judged Art Show” Babylon, New York, United States
2022 Artists on the Lane, Bellport Lane, Bellport, New York, United States
2021 “Grief & Gratitude” Tortuga Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
2021 “Sea of Visibility: The Voyage” Huntington Arts Council, Huntington, New York, United States
2021 “2021 Members Showcase” The Art Guild, Port Washington, New York, United States
2021 “Contemporary Art Fair- 2nd Edition” Margo Gallery, New York, New York, United States
2021 “A Sense of Place” Mills Pond Gallery, St James, New York, United States
2021 “Harvests of Artists” bj Spoke Gallery, Huntington, New York, United States
2020 “She is... 2020”, One Art Space, New York, New York, United States
2020 “NYA Art Fair” NYA Art, New York, New York, United States
EDUCATION:
2006 BFA, Textile/Surface Design, with honors, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, New York, United States