Tessa Click
Search Party for Two
January 3 – February 2, 2020
Based in symbolic language, this body of work seeks understanding of the real world through the use of absurd characters, props, and settings as forms of proxy. Mundane scenes, intertwined with otherworldly imagery, set the stage for playing out unseen connections between internal and external conflicts. These mixed-media paintings and structures invite the viewer to consider concepts of potentiality and agency in uncertain times. While some of the imagery may at times feel familiar and childlike, the artist’s use of unrecognizable objects and disorienting vantage points highlights a lack of groundedness. The nonlinear narratives embrace artifice, duplicity, a sense of play, and analog materiality. Influences from children’s storytelling toys, historical narrative painting, and theatrical set design can be found throughout the formal and conceptual aspects of the work.
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Originally from Carmel, IN, Tessa Click received a master of fine arts in visual arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, and a bachelor of science in visual art education from Ball State University in Muncie, IN. She has been a resident of Washington, DC, since 2012.
