Tessa MacKay (b.1991) is a photo/hyperreal painter based in Perth. Her practice interrogates her inclination to paint high-value photographic source imagery to justify the hours demanded by the style. In response, MacKay integrates Classical Realism, 17th-century Dutch Golden Age, and 19th-century Neo-Impressionist formalism to depict low-value imagery, examining how image-making technologies shape perceptions of value. Her ongoing project SOCIAL REALISM transposes mid-to-late 2000s Facebook photographs into figurative painting and materiality. She has previously exhibited work at the Minor Attractions Art Fair (London), LAILA gallery (NSW), Wynne Prize (NSW, VIC), PICA Quick Response Residency, Lawson Flats (WA), Melbourne Art Fair, and Sidney Myer (VIC). Her latest work, EXHIBITIONISTS, considers the reception of iconic artworks amid shortening attention spans and AI-generated content, questioning art's role in a mediated world where digital images have largely replaced embodied experience.