Theresa Byrnes (b. 1969) is a painter, writer and performance artist who first exhibited her paintings in 1986 at the age of sixteen. The following year she was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia, a rare and terminal degenerative disease of the nervous system for which there is no cure. She began using a wheelchair in 1996 when she was 26. In 1997 she was nominated as NSW Young Australian of the Year for her work in establishing the Theresa Byrnes Foundation to raise money for research into the disease. After publishing her autobiography, The Divine Mistake, in 1999, she moved to New York the following year, where she has lived ever since. Byrnes regularly exhibits her paintings in New York, Washington, London and Sydney, and received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant for her painting in 2003 and 2006. Best known for her provocative performance works, she uses her whole body to create edgy artworks using materials such as diesel, ink and mud. In 2010 she opened her New York studio gallery, Suffer (later TBG), where she held openings, performances and film screenings. Due to Covid-19 Byrnes was forced to close TBG at the end of 2020. She then completed a residency at Grace Exhibition Space, a New York gallery dedicated to performance art, where she performed Rock, Alone. Together and Glimpse.
