WAVES & FREQUENCIES

New works by Tessa Greene O'Brien and Kathryn Lynch

February 15- March 29 2025

La Loma Projects Annex: 1357 Brixton Road, Pasadena, CA 91105 (By appointment only)

Waves and Frequencies brings together the works of Tessa Greene O’Brien and Kathryn Lynch, two artists whose distinct approaches to painting ask similar questions of perception, memory, and place. Through a shared softness of atmosphere, their works dreamily report on the world, from dappled landscapes of rural Maine to the flickering views of a cityscape at night. The exhibition explores the tensions between the transient and the permanent, the visible and the imagined, as both artists paint with a heightened awareness of time and the ephemerality of experience.

Tessa Greene O’Brien’s vibrant oil paintings employ a combination of oil, bleach, and wax resist on dyed canvas to capture the hazy, sun-faded qualities of personal snapshots. Her approach is tensile, one of balance and contrast: while some areas of her canvas are rendered in precise detail with a primacy and delicacy of light reminiscent of Édouard Vuillard, others dissolve into abstract washes of color and texture that recall the dewy sensuousness of Charles E. Burchfield.

Kathryn Lynch’s works capture the periphery of daily life—those moments that hover at the edges of consciousness. Traveling New York’s Hudson Valley, cityscapes, and ocean views, Lynch paints not a specific place but the feeling that a place evokes. Her expressive brushwork and chunky forms, though representational, reference Milton Avery in color and mood. As she notes, “When I leave a place, it’s still with me—I keep painting it.” In this exhibition, Lynch’s paintings speak to the lasting impression of the places we inhabit, and the quiet yet powerful way they shape our memories.

WORKS