Tessa Greene O’Brien is an artist & curator based in South Portland, Maine. She received a BS degree in Fine Art from Skidmore College and an MFA from Maine College of Art and Design. O'Brien has exhibited nationally, including recent shows at Platform Project Space, Brooklyn, NY; Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles; Dowling Walsh, ME; Buoy Gallery, ME; Sears Peyton Gallery, NYC; Studio E Gallery, Seattle; and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. In 2022 she was a Residential Fellow at The Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College, other residencies include Surf Point, Tides Institute, Monson Arts, Haystack, Hewnoaks, Vermont Studio Center, Annex Arts, and Stephen Pace House. Grants and awards include the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Ellis Beauregard Foundation, Maine Arts Commission, Joseph. A. Fiore Painting Prize, St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, and the Kindling Fund at SPACE Gallery.
O’Brien’s independent curatorial practice includes group and solo exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Alice Gauvin Gallery, TEMPOArts, and numerous shows at Able Baker Contemporary, where she was previously a Director of Exhibitions.
Works by Tessa Greene O’Brien
Starflower, 8in x 6in - $1,100
Cape Split Flowers, 8in x 6in - $1,100
Starflower w/ Spiderweb, 8in x 6in - $1,100
Artist’s Statement
“My practice is centered around themes of love, perception, and a sense of place. I make autobiographical paintings using imagery from personal snapshots and family photos from my rural Maine childhood. Working in traditions of observation and storytelling, I seek and paint the stories embedded in the landscape.
My paintings are colorful in a sun-faded way, and I use techniques such as staining, dyeing, and invented color to convey a hazy perceptual state that mimics my memory. I retain painterly portions of the initial fast composition, then selectively render certain imagery with detailed clarity. I am interested in the tension between picture and paint, working towards moments where the image dissolves and the formal and physical qualities of the paint coalesce.
Painting from observation is a self-imposed parameter that challenges me to notice, and to engage in an ongoing triangulation between myself, my surroundings, and the history of painting.”
Featured Exhibitions
Browse three of Tessa Greene O’Brien’s paintings in our 2024 fall group floral show, Sometimes You Bring Me Flowers.