Summer 2024
June 1-July 1, 2024 Tessa Greene O’Brien (and Friends!)
Pink Sky Maple St by Tessa Greene O’Brien, Oil on Panel
Tessa Greene O’Brien
Annex Arts Artist Residency Program and Gallery B are pleased to welcome Tessa Greene O’Brien as Artist-in-Residence for the month of June. Tessa, a painter and curator working in South Portland, will be working here for the month.
As an extension of her curatorial and arts organization practice, Tessa will host several other visiting artists to enjoy supported working time and space on the coast of Maine. The artists will each work independently, with shared space and time allowing conversations to unfold luxuriously over several days and deepening creative alliances. O’Brien hopes to introduce new artists to the Blue Hill Peninsula community, promoting cross-pollination and expanded creative communities for all!
June visiting artists will include Emily Farranto (New Orleans), Annika Early (Belfast), Jeane Cohen (Brooklyn), Alice Jones (Portland), and more. Alice Jones’ residency dates will be determined by the impending births of two baby goats, expect to see Alice in mid-June painting gardens & greenery around Castine. Annika Early will be working on her elaborate black and white drawings while in residence from June 20-23, and Jeane Cohen will be here and painting for the later half of June.
A Maine native, Tessa Greene O’Brien is an artist & curator based in South Portland. She received a BS degree in Fine Art from Skidmore College and an MFA from Maine College of Art and Design. O'Brien has shown throughout the United States, including recent exhibitions at Platform Project Space, Brooklyn; Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles; Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland; Buoy Gallery, Kittery; Sears Peyton Gallery, NYC; Studio E Gallery, Seattle; and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She was a 2022-2023 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, Joseph A Fiore Art Center, and Stephen Pace House. Grants and awards include the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, The Ellis Beauregard Foundation, the Maine Arts Commission, the Joseph. A. Fiore Painting Prize, St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, and the Kindling Fund at SPACE Gallery.
Special events will include two exhibitions, Tessa Green O’Brien and residents weekly Open Studio hours on Sundays 11-2:00 through June, and a The One Series Salons will be held at the Annex on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, June 8th, 9th, and 10th, 5:00-6:30 PM.
Visiting artists invited by Tessa Greene O’Brien will be included in and making work for and the exhibitions at Gallery B.
“Strawberry Moon” is on view to June 12
“FAMILIARS” opens on June 14th, an exhibition about dogs, cats, and all manner of creature companions.
“Being Here”, opening July 1, will include much of the work resulting from artists spending time here during the month of June.
Annex Arts studios are located at 8 Water Street in Castine.
OPEN STUDIOS
Open Studio days include Sundays, 11:00 - 2:00.
When the open flag is up, visitors are welcome to pop in for brief greetings. Artists will also be working out in the field during their stay on the Blue Hill Peninsula.
June 1-11, 2024 Emily Farranto
Emily Farranto, a writer and artist based in New Orleans, will be in residence from June 1-11 working on her next book which is about art and failure. Her writing has appeared in Slate, New Orleans Review, Arts and Letters, and 433. She writes a monthly art column for ANTIGRAVITY and publishes more art writing on her Substack, Village Disco and Disco Nola and posts art daily on Instagram @thevillagedisco
Emily will host a series of One-Work Salons in which participants view and discuss a single artwork while enjoying refreshments. “Spending time with a single work of art is an extraordinary experience. This process reminds us how to look at art, that it’s worth taking time with a work, refraining from judgement, open to being changed by it.”
The One Series Salons will be held at the Annex West Water Street Studios on Saturday, Sunday, and maybe Monday if demand holds June 8, 9, and maybe the 10th from 5:00-6:30