Kelly M O’Brien is a sculptor based in Ellenville, New York, whose work explores transformation through biomaterials and natural systems. Her practice interrogates sustainability, interspecies connection, and ecological resilience through process-driven research and experimentation.

Working with living, recyclable, and ephemeral materials—including mycelium (fungi root systems) and plant-based bioplastics—O’Brien examines cycles of loss, regeneration, and repair. Rooted in a philosophy of care, her sculptural and time-based installations offer quiet reflections on impermanence and the porous boundaries between human and more-than-human worlds.

O’Brien’s current work centers on a radical shift away from petrochemical-based materials toward sustainable, regenerative alternatives. She develops castable, formable “bioplastics” using plant-based ingredients such as plant-based starches, glycerin, gelatin, and chlorophyll. These experiments serve as both technical inquiries and philosophical gestures—embodied responses to material waste and climate anxiety. Each piece becomes a vessel for speculative making: testing how materials behave, interact with their environments, and eventually break down. This process invites questions about permanence, value, and care in a time of ecological crisis.

Producer responsibility and circular economy principles increasingly inform O’Brien’s studio practice. Her work investigates the full material lifecycle of artmaking—from sourcing and fabrication to decay and renewal—seeking to go beyond sustainability toward active transformation. By aligning method with ethics, she asks how creative practices can model care-driven, accountable ways of living.

O’Brien’s practice offers a model for regenerative making: one that is materially responsive, ethically engaged, and rooted in deep ecological awareness. By aligning sculpture with environmental responsibility, she invites viewers into a space of reflection—where art becomes not only an object of inquiry but a catalyst for more tender, accountable relationships with the living world.

Awards: 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 2022

Grants & commissions (2019-2024): Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Arts Council England, Gane Trust, Harbut Trust, HPC Community Fund, Somerset Art Works

MFA (Distinction), 2019, Bath Spa University; Staedelschule Adult Academy, Frankfurt, 2013-14

Exhibited in the UK, US, France, Germany

Director, Material Projects Space, co-founder, Bath Art Depot; co-curator, A Gathering of Unasked Possibility

Also, since 2015 Kelly has run PaperJoy Studio