VARGA Gallery Presents "Mikey Teutul: Unleashed" on 11/11/11 in Woodstock, New York

Online, November 4, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The VARGA Gallery presents a solo exhibition of original paintings by self-taught artist Mikey Teutul, of the same family now famous for the hit series "American Chopper" on Discovery Channel. The show documents Mikey Teutul's emerging career as a painter and extremely well-liked guy while detailing the lives and aspirations of the Teutul Family whose high-tech bike building businesses have huge mass appeal and make for great reality TV. "Mikey Teutul: Unleashed" runs through December 31, 2011 and is the last exhibit of 2011 at VARGA Gallery.

The Teutul family have made "Orange County Choppers" and "Paul Junior Designs" household names and the choppers are coveted by a huge array of bikers, corporations and collectors. The show stages Mikey's emerging art career and offers an intimate view into the emotional substance of one artist's struggle. Mikey's medium is commercial-grade canned paint poured or splattered onto canvas and other surfaces. With no formal art training his work expresses a raw, unconstrained nature and belies his amiable TV persona. His foray into art blossomed out of aimlessness working at Orange County Choppers. American Chopper Producer Adam Moyer suggested he paint portraits of the cast and crew. "So I started painting everybody. I didn't think anyone would want to buy any of my art, I just wanted to paint. I really enjoyed it, and I found it therapeutic. If I don't concentrate my addictive behavior on something positive, it will definitely go to the negative. I don't make any bones about that." Teutul's struggles with addiction are known to his fans. "It's nice to express that on canvas, rather than abuse myself, like I used to," he adds.

Mikey enjoys "being constructive, and not destructive" and is finding his footing in creative expression while "making a real go at something." His influences include the obvious, Jackson Pollack, but his approach is his own. "I was awed by Pollack's real depth and different levels of emotion, but my art isn't supposed to emulate Pollack, and I'm not trying to be him. The most I can hope for is that people find my art freaky, fun, weird and enjoyable." As Mikey puts it, he is to Pollack what Britney Spears is to Meryl Streep. With some of his paintings taking only seconds, Mikey envisions a day he can "make more money than A-Rod, but I'll be happy if I can make enough to keep my doors open, afford some paint and canvas, and continue to do what I enjoy."

The exhibition includes a year end group show of artists represented by VARGA Gallery, seasonal holiday gift-giving small works, and Occupy Wall Street art, propaganda, performance and paraphernalia. VARGA Gallery represents the cutting edge of outsider art in the Hudson Valley and is pleased to have Mikey Teutul draw an ever growing circle of art lovers, enthusiasts and patrons to Woodstock from around the globe.

VARGA Gallery was founded in Woodstock in June 2003 in by self-taught artist Christina Varga. The gallery features an evolving stable of self-taught, outsider, emerging and visionary artists from the Hudson Valley and beyond. Founder and self-taught artist Christina Varga's exhibition history includes the Kunsttiendaagse 10 Days of Art Festival in Bergen, North Holland; the 13th Mega Exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore; the 2005/2006 Winter Exhibition at Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City; the Resurgence Magazine Conference on Earth & Religion at Bard College. For more information visit VARGA Gallery online at http://www.VARGAgallery.com/.