Mary Kelly (artist)

Mary Kelly (born 1941)^[1] is an American conceptual artist, feminist, educator, and writer.^[2]

Mary Kelly has contributed extensively to the discourse of feminism and postmodernism through her large-scale narrative installations and theoretical writings.^[1] Kelly’s work mediates between conceptual art and the more intimate interests of artists of the 1980s. Her work has been exhibited internationally^[3] and she is considered among the most influential contemporary artists working today.^[4] Mary Kelly is Professor of Art at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is Head of Interdisciplinary Studio, an area she initiated for artists engaged in site-specific, collective, and project based work.^[5] Mary Kelly is represented by Postmasters ^[3] in New York and Rosamund Felsen ^[6] in Los Angeles.

Work

Kelly is known for her project-based work in the form of large-scale narrative installations. Post-Partum Document ^[7] (1973–79) is a process-based work, which uses objects of both personal and theoretical significance to document the mother-child relationship. Gloria Patri ^[8](1992) draws on an archive of found material from the first Gulf War to question how the violence of international events affects or is affected by individual lives.^[9] In her monumental work, Interim ^[10] (1984–89), Kelly deals with collective memories of women. Its object is to specify the discourses that define and regulate feminine identities.^[11] In the Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi ^[12] (2001), panels of lint, formed in a domestic dryer, are joined together to form undulating waves that tell the story of a child abandoned during the war in Kosovo. As part of this work, Kelly commissioned the composer, Michael Nyman to create a score for the ballad that was performed by soprano Sarah Leonard and the Nyman Quartet at the opening of the exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. ^[13] For Love Songs ^[14](2005), Kelly enlisted the help of young women interested in the philosophies and legacies of the women’s movement to restage historical photographs of protests some thirty years after they were taken. Her “remixes” are just approximate enough to allow for real differences between versions, but similar enough to suggest literal and metaphorical continuities.^[15]

Selected Exhibitions

She has had major solo exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Generali Foundation, Vienna, Institute for Contemporary Art, London. Recent exhibitions include documenta 12, Kassel, Germany, WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the 2004 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the 2008 Biennale of Sydney, Australia.

The first three parts of her influential work Post-Partum Document (1973 - 7) were shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1976.^[16] In 2007 she participated in documenta^[16] in Kassel, Germany, exhibiting a mixed media installation entitled "Love Songs".^[17] Kelly's works are held in numerous museum collections including the Tate.^[18]

Selected publications

By the artist

• Post-Partum Document, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983, reprint, English and German, Generali Foundation , Vienna and University of California Press, Berkeley, 1998
• Imaging Desire, MIT Press, 1996
• Pecunia Olet, Top Stories, New York 1989

On the artist

• Mary Kelly: Words are things, (catalog) and Mary Kelly: On fidelity, (conference papers), Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, 2008
• Mary Kelly, Espacio AV, Region de Murcia, 2008
• Mary Kelly: La balada de Kastriot Rexhepi/ Musica original de Michael Nyman, (catalog), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2004
• Rereading Post-Partum Document, Generali Foundation, Vienna, 1999
• Mary Kelly, Phaidon Press, London, 1997
• Social Process Collaborative Action: Mary Kelly 1970-1975, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, 1997
• Mary Kelly: Gloria Patri, (catalog) Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University and Ezra & Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University
• Mary Kelly: Interim, (catalog), New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1990.
• Richmond, Susan. "From Stone to Cloud: Mary Kelly’s Love Songs and Feminist Intergenerationality". Feminist Theory 11.1 (2010): 57-78. Print.

Public collections

Kunsthaus, Zurich, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansa, Santa Monica, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Arts Council of Great Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Australian National Gallery, The Tate Britain, London, The Tate Modern,^[18] London, New Hall, Cambridge University, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Helsinki City Art Museum, Generali Foundation, Vienna, Colorado University Art Museum, Bard College, New York, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach and Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Iversen, Margaret, Douglas Crimp, and Homi K. Bhabha. Mary Kelly, London: Phaidon, 1997. Page 146.
2. ^ Walker, John A. Art and Outrage: Provocation, Controversy and the Avant-garde., London: Pluto, 1999 page 83
3. ^ ^{a b} Postmasters Gallery NYC Postmasters,
4. ^ Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
5. ^ University of California, Art Department,
6. ^ Rosamund Felsen
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ [2]
9. ^ Bonham, Charlotte, and David Hodge.The Contemporary Art Book, London: Goodman, an imprint of Carlton Publishing Group, 2009. Page 129
10. ^ [3]
11. ^ Sandler, Irving. Art of the Post Modern Era, New York: Harper Collins, 1996, p 400.
12. ^ [4]
13. ^ Kraus,Chris, Jan Tumlir, and Jans McFadden. LA Artland, London: Black Dog Publishing, 2005, p 103.
14. ^ [5]
15. ^ Burton,Johanna. Mary Kelly Postmasters, New York: Art Forum, January, 2005.
16. ^ ^{a b} Ian White, The Body Politic, Frieze, May 2007.
17. ^ Richmond, Susan. "Stop Frame, Rewind, Push Forward: Mary Kelly's Love Songs", Art Papers, July 2008. Retrieved on 2010-06-23.
18. ^ ^{a b} tate.org.uk

External links

• http://www.marykellyartist.com, Artist Website
• Christopher Miles, Mary Kelly: Santa Monica Museum of Art - Los Angeles, ArtForum, March 2002.
• Holland Cotter, Art in Review, The New York Times, April 9, 1999.
• John A. Walker, Mary Kelly at Institute of Contemporary Arts (1976) - Can dirty nappies be art?. Excerpt from Art & Outrage, 1999/2010.
• Rosadora Shreibwelt, [6]

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Name	Kelly, Mary
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Date of birth	1941
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