poppy o’brien


selected series   
  1. 140525 // taplow
  2. 160423
  3. 021123
  4. 201123
  5. 240124
  6. 190324 // façade
  7. 040924
  8. 111024
  9. 161124
  10. 060225 // illuminate

artist statment —
info

Born and based in London, Poppy O’Brien (b. 1999) is an artist who works across painting, sculpture and photography. Studying at UCA Canterbury (2019-2023) and UAL Chelsea (2023-24), in 2024 she was the recipient of the Sir Frank Bowling Award. In 2025 she was a participant in the Turps Banana Residency Program 03. 




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1 . 140525 // taplow 


The taplow series is  a body of paintings developed during a six-week residency at Turps Banana. The residency itself was located in a unit at Taplow House—a brutalist residential tower block and one of the final remaining structures of the original Aylesbury Estate.

Emerging from observations of the building’s architectural language, the Taplow series investigates the interplay between light, materiality, and form. Within each composition, angular geometric elements converge, interact, and subtly shift on the surface, echoing the spatial tension and rhythm inherent to the surrounding urban fabric.
Brushstrokes  remain intentionally exposed, revealing the construction of the painting itself. Imperfection becomes a feature rather than a flaw, echoing the weathered textures and lived-in nature of the building’s surfaces.

The colour palette draws from specific architectural features of the estate - distilling and translating them into a visual vocabulary that oscillates between abstraction and structural familiarity. Executed in acrylic and clear gesso on aluminium and MDF panels, the work’s materiality furthers the correspondence with its source, reflecting both the solidity and fragility embedded in the architecture it responds to.

taplow, 2025
aluminium, acrylic paint
30X30CM
taplow II, 2025
aluminium, acrylic paint
30X30 CM
taplow III, 2025
aluminium, acrylic paint
30X30 CM





taplow I & II
installation view
turps residency 03 
fragment, 2025
acrylic paint, spray paint ,gloss varnish, MDF panel
30X30CM (each)


fragment, 2025
installation view
turps residency 03