Briena Harmening resides and works in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a 2010 MFA graduate from the University of Tennessee and currently teaches Art and the AP program at Hillwood High School.
Artist Statement
Much of my work combines various mediums with forms of painting often becoming surfaces for text. I draw influences from traditional craft, street art and punk rock, and incorporate found objects and spray painted surfaces. The words that I choose – phrases, jokes, fragments, and excerpts – document my thoughts about life, loss, and love, and are often taken out of context. This is one of many binaries I explore and seek to balance in my work, along with the traditional and contemporary, the private and public, the domestic and manufactured, and what is delicate and hard.