Image: Lena Lewis-King

Kelly M O'Brien is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores ecological interdependence, material transformation, and systems of care. Working with plant matter, natural pigments, and hand-cast bioplastics, she creates installations that blur boundaries between sculpture, drawing, and architecture. O'Brien has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Royal Society of Sculptors, and Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, where she is the 2026 Visual Artist Fellow. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY with a studio in Ellenville,

Current work is especially focused on the material and production evolution of natural polymer bioplastics and the body of work Botanica Lucida. Across this work, light, translucency, layered form, tenderness, and resilience are not only visual concerns, but part of a broader inquiry into how art can model more accountable and regenerative ways of making. O'Brien is particularly interested in the full lifecycle of materials, moving away from petrochemical-based methods and toward biodegradable, circular, and care-driven processes.

Her studio research is iterative and cross-disciplinary, often drawing from craft, design, environmental ethics, and collaboration. Documentation also plays an important role in her practice, serving both as a research method and as a public-facing way to share the evolving logic of the work.

Awards: DVAA Artist Fellowship, 2026; Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award, 2023; Hauser & Wirth CalArts Postgraduate Residency shortlist 2020; HIX Prize finalist 2019

Residencies: Byrdcliffe Woodstock 2023; PADA Lisbon 2022; The Studio Innovation Hub, Bath Spa University 2021-2022

Grants & commissions (2018-2024): Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2024; Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (through Byrdcliff AiR), 2023; Arts Council England 2022; Somerset Art Works 2021-23; Harbut Trust 2019; HPC Community Fund 2019; Gane Trust 2018

Exhibited in the UK, US, France, Germany

Director, Material Projects Space; co-chair, Ellenville Artists Collective; art director, O+ Festival Ellenville 2027

Director, PaperJoy Studio

MFA (Distinction), 2019, Bath Spa University; Staedelschule Adult Academy (Mixed Media Sculpture), Frankfurt, 2013-14; MA Human Development, George Washington University, 1997

Environmental Sustainability

I am pleased to announce that I have successfully qualified as an Active Member for 2025-26 with Gallery Climate Coalition. To achieve Active status I had to demonstrate that I had implemented environmentally responsible best practice in line with GCC guidance.

Active Membership is not a certification of sustainability nor a claim that I am doing things perfectly. We’re all doing our best to assess, report and reduce our impact, setting targets in line with science, taking any actions we can and working out other solutions as we go. I encourage all my peers and colleagues to visit GCC’s website to learn more about the initiative and how to get involved.

My practice is increasingly guided by a commitment to align ecological values with material choices, studio methods, and the broader life of the work. [Read the full Environmental Responsibility Statement]

Resources

This ongoing process has been informed by organizations, writings, and practical tools that support more environmentally responsible cultural work. I also maintain a growing collection of resources for artists focused on care, repair, resilience, and sustainable practice.

  • Gallery Climate Coalition Artist Toolkit — a practical, artist-focused resource with guidance across materials, production, shipping, travel, exhibition-making, and more, including an Environmental Responsibility Rider template and resource index.

  • Julie’s Bicycle — a long-running nonprofit that mobilizes the arts and culture sector to take action on climate, nature, and justice, with programs, tools, and a resource hub for cultural practitioners.

  • Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts — a broad resource library that connects artists and arts workers to sustainability tools, publications, and field-specific references across creative practice.

  • Artist Care and Repair Resources — my ongoing collection of resources for artists centered on care, repair, resilience, and sustaining creative life and practice.