Artist Talk by Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley
featuring the U.S. debut screening of Swinburne’s Pasiphae
Tuesday, October 7, 7 pm
This exhibition is organized by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York at New Paltz and curated by Daniel Belasco.
Mary Reid Kelley: Working Objects and Videos is the first museum exhibition devoted to the finely crafted and researched costumes, objects, and drawings that Mary Reid Kelley creates for her videos that she produces in collaboration with Patrick Kelley. These working objects reveal Reid Kelley as a master of the contemporary impulse to work across and synthesize art media.
The exhibition features three recent high definition videos—"You Make Me Iliad" (2010), "The Syphilis of Sisyphus" (2011), and "Priapus Agonistes" (2013)—and also reveals the inventive process by which Kelley has fused live performance, drawing, sculpture, costume design, and digital media. In addition to the three videos, the exhibition includes found objects and carefully rendered materials, which have been enhanced by the artist. These objects include costumes, furniture ensembles, masks, hats, wigs, shoes, and nearly 100 other props. Installed in full-scale, theatrical and worktable settings, these elements fully immerse the viewer in the artist's unique vision. Also featured are drawings and paintings on paper that are used as visual elements in the videos, as well as "character drawings" or portraits of the personages from her videos.
Mary Reid Kelley holds an MFA from Yale University School of Art and a BA from St. Olaf’s College. She has exhibited videos in solo shows at Pilar Corrias Gallery, London (2014), the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2013), Art House Austin (2013), Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York (2011 and 2009), Suzanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles (2013 and 2010), and Salina Art Center, Salina, Kansas (2012). She was featured in the sixth season of PBS’ series Art21, received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2014), and is recipient of a Rome Prize (2011-12).
An illustrated catalogue co-published by the Dorsky Museum and the University Art Museum is available. It includes an essay by Daniel Belasco and an interview with Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley by UAM curator Corinna Ripps Schaming. The catalogue is distributed by the State University of New York Press.
The exhibition is organized by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York at New Paltz and curated by Daniel Belasco. Funding for the University Art Museum presentation is provided by UAlbany’s Office of the President and Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, University Auxiliary Services, and the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. For further information on exhibitions and programs, call (518) 442-4035 or visit our website at www.albany.edu/museum.