Espejos I

Robert Kelly
Printmaking
2017

University Hall, Second Floor

Born in Santa Fe, artist Robert Kelly has been residing in New York City for the past 20 years. With over 30 one person shows to date throughout America and Europe, his work continues to explore a metaphysic of mark making and painting on a variety of richly constructed surfaces. Combining influences of the Bauhaus from Van Doesburg to Mondrian, with those of Schwitters and Klee, Kelly weds hints of the historical with the contemporary. His play of edges, angles and cuts amidst otherwise random marks, creates a tension and an intuitive logic to the placement of line and form.
 
Robert Kelly is best known for his geometric abstractions Though his paintings and works on paper appear simple, each piece is composed through layers of materials and paint: “Much like a stonemason building a wall, my recent work seems to be anchored in a step-by-step process of composing formal puzzles.” His pieces are meditative: “I have grown fond of the pared-down tools of line, form, and color and the bountiful yield of their juxtapositions, without the need of references or symbolic otherness to give them meaning.” 
 
The series Espejos refers to mirrors and the way in which perception is altered, multiplied and reconfigured.
 
Kelly received a BA from Harvard University in 1978. His work has been collected by major collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and The New Mexico Museum of Art. His work has been exhibited by contemporary galleries, museums, and fairs around the world, including Basel Art Fair and Art Basel Miami.