A piece out of my series “overexposed and underlined” - a series where I questioned the tragic deaths of women while I contemplated my own mortality. This portrait is of Jeanie Childs, a sex worker who was brutally stabbed and murdered in her own home & whose murderer was convicted 30 years later from dna found on a hot dog napkin!!! Very interesting story if u check it out.
“Jeanie Childs” 2026, 16x20in, oil on canvas
Kelly Ahern takes the room.
Selected for Bushwick Gallery’s Solo Statement Doesn’t Play Well with Others, she presents Surface Tension — a one-night takeover where the work doesn’t sit quietly on the wall, it shifts the entire space.
Unstretched canvases. Edges released. Figures that flicker between presence and disappearance. Paintings that feel less made than accumulated.
This is not a show about resolution.
It’s about what holds, what slips, and what refuses to settle.
One artist. One environment. Fully claimed.
April 17, 2026
6pm to 8pm
Bushwick Gallery
22 Fayette Street, Brooklyn
Light bites and beverages served
Non commercial program centered on artistic presentation
#KellyAhern #SurfaceTension #BushwickGallery #BrooklynArt #NYCArt
COME SEE MY NEW WORK NEXT FRIDAYYYY AT @bushwickgallery in a solo exhibition titled “Surface Tension” - link in bio to rsvp!!
“IT’S ROOMIE IN HERE”
2026
40 x 60 in
Oil on polyester
#art #painting #gallery #artshow
New work alert // exciting news! 🔔 titling this ->
“Detritus”
2026
36 x 36 in
oil on canvas
Join me in a few Fridays on April 17th from 6-8pm for a solo exhibition I’m having named “Surface Tension” at @bushwickgallery !!!
“How Dear that Door be There”
24 x 24 in
Mixed media on canvas
Last year I ran into my own closed door in the midst of a cleaning frenzy when I forgot I had closed it. It hurt. I thought to myself… “how door that dare be there” (a spoonerism) - why tf would I close the door on myself? How did I forget? And as an artist I thought - is this a metaphor for my life? Was I going so fast that I didn’t realize I was closing doors on the way? In that moment I wished that every door I’ll ever approach in my life would magically open. I thought of doors as opportunities & maybe I had such tunnel vision that I didn’t realize I was metaphorically closing them in my mind. It all felt like a huge mirror moment. I thought doors, dares, dears, my brain was jumping around miles in minutes & I imagined channeling this feeling into a painting that would open a sea of opportunity. Thnx for listening.
#art #painting
