KEVIN T.KELLY - OPUS PROPRIUM - APRIL 25 - MAY 27 2008
It is widely known that “Pop art” is an immediate conversation between artist and viewer. Very quick and digestible. This is not the case with Kevin T. Kelly’s body of work. This is why his work is important. Artists like Kelly, tend to gain ground in some new area. Kelly’s ground is the one of relationships between the sexes and the secret unspoken desires behind the “relationship”. Kelly provides the viewer with the pieces of the puzzle but never the answers. All are interconnected somehow. Unlike the disjointed and hazy work of contemporary artists like David Salle, Kelly has the combination to his work. Can you unlock it? Put the pieces together?

There are very few pop artists today whom demand your time to figure out the meaning of their entire body of work. My first viewing of Kelly’s work required myself and 3 friends to study and debate what was happening on the canvas before us. Soon our discussions got personal
and suggestive. Our think tank thought we had the concept settled  Moments later, the artist walked by and insisted we had not.

I became a collector of his work that night. - AVS

Artist Statement
I’ve always viewed the process of drawing as a means to an end, rather than the end itself. However, drawing plays a major role in my creative process and is of paramount importance. It is the primary vehicle I use to get from the initial idea to the finished painting. Drawing is an elusive term and difficult to define, but it’s parameters encompass virtually every stage in the development of my imagery. It is perhaps more a mental than physical process, in that the act of drawing is really a state of refining. These refinements occur incrementally throughout various stages which initially include collage, sketching in graphite and colored pencil, and then ultimately, “drawing with tape” and cutting masks with an x-acto knife when painting. From the preliminary sketches to the canvas, every stage involves drawing, because the image is in a state of flux until the final coat of varnish is applied.

For me, art should be made for strong eyes. Not some ethereal, contemplative entity that begs or cajoles, but more akin to the sharpened end of a stick, demanding one’s immediate attention. A veritable assault of the senses, both viscerally and cerebrally. It can be seductive, cynical, even humorous, but always deadly serious in its intent and execution.

Kevin Kelly Press links

"Stasis Quo" review 01

"Sex, Flames and Tracers" review