Bespoke 2D and 3D paper art originals and hand-embellished prints for hospitality and curated residential projects. Kelly and her team create elegant unique pieces, series, and multiples that enhance and elevate high-end design projects.
PaperJoy Studio is run by artist Kelly M O’Brien, creating bespoke paper art originals and hand-embellished prints for hospitality and high-end residential projects since 2015.
PaperJoy works extensively with trade professionals that serve the designed interiors market, including hospitality, healthcare, corporate, and residential projects. Our work can be found in commercial and private collections throughout the United States, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, and the West Indies.
Kelly is experienced working with large teams, complex projects, and major budgets. PaperJoy partners with other makers and technicians as needed for each project based on client specifications, including framers, fine art handlers and transport firms, studio assistants, and specialty fabricators.
In 2011, she and her partner moved overseas and Kelly retrained as an artist. Prior to her turn towards the arts, she led and managed complex organization change projects for multiple US federal agencies. In 2023 Kelly returned to the US and settled in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
She has a Masters Degree of Fine Art from Bath Spa University (Bath, UK), 2019 and completed foundational art training in Germany at the Staedelschule Adult Academy (2012-14). She also has an MA Human Development from The George Washington University (1997).
Kelly exhibits her work in the US and overseas. Awards and honors include: Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2024); Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award (2023); Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2023); artist residencies in New York (2023) and Lisbon (2022); Arts Council England funding (2022).
