MEDIUM: Painting and Mixed Media

STUDIO LOCATION: 16 at 6 Vernon Street

WEBSITE: abbyfenn.com

Instagram: @afenn_art

Originally from Rochester, NY, Abby Fenn is a visual artist currently living and working in Somerville, MA. She graduated from Boston University in 2021 with a BFA in painting and graphic design. Since graduating, Fenn has been working as a studio assistant for artists Lucy Kim and Yu-Wen Wu while continuing to grow her own material and process based studio practice. 

Fenn’s work arises from the textiles, patterns, and photographs that she grew up with and around. A quilt made by a grandmother, a crossword completed by a grandfather, pins collected by a sister: all are meaningful frameworks that she builds from through the process of making. Focusing on the nuances of these and other collected items, her experimental studio practice centers around materiality, memory, and play. Throughout the process, memories become the material. The associations she has with specific objects and patterns lead to material transformations and creating inventive medium selections. She reminisces as she works; each substance, process, or subject echoing a moment, person, or feeling from childhood. As a result, the works become indirect collaborations with family members and a past self. They allow her to reflect as she searches through archives for something missed.