Teresa Wells

I am a sculptor exploring the contradictions at the heart of human behaviour. Inspired by a strong moral upbringing, I carry an enduring ethical consciousness alongside a fascination with the question: how do humans behave? My work grows from the tension between the values we are taught to uphold and the far more complex realities we live. Through sculpture, I examine the fragile, shifting negotiations that shape identity and define our relationship with society. I am drawn to themes of isolation, miscommunication, resilience, and the delicate balance between fragility and strength. These experiences feel universal, and I seek to express them in ways that invite shared recognition rather than fixed interpretation. My forms often twist, stretch, or fragment, suggesting pressure, vulnerability, and the tenacity required to hold oneself together in the face of adversity. Working primarily in bronze, I use a material associated with permanence and tradition while pushing it toward expressions of sensitivity and risk. Steel and mixed media often introduce tension and instability, creating physical metaphors for emotional uncertainty. Influenced by the dynamism and emotional charge of the Baroque, particularly Bernini, and the structural clarity of Modernism, including Caro, I situate my work between movement and reduction, figuration and abstraction. I aim to show that it is our whole selves — conflicted, resilient, imperfect — that make us compelling. Rather than resolving contradictions, I hold them in balance, allowing sculpture to become a space where complexity, vulnerability, and strength coexist.