8 WEEKS IN SERIFOS: EDWARD KELLY SOLO SHOW
22nd June – 15th July 2022
Edward Kelly’s powerfully expressive paintings composed of rhythmic marks and emblems reflect his long standing engagement with the relationship between the elemental force of nature and the dynamic of abstract painting. The excitement of dramatic environments is alive in Kelly’s works, and this is fuelled by his passion for mountain walking. This solo exhibition will feature his latest excursion to the Greek island of Serifos.
Intense, complex paintings disclose an insightful assimilation of Modernism, but Kelly’s long held admiration for Piero della Francesca, for whom mathematics was so important, is revealing. For Kelly the balance, or deliberate imbalance, of shape, is crucial. Spatial concerns alternate constantly between those of the subject and those of the painting, but for Kelly ‘The ordering of these very concrete issues is never secondary to figuration’.
The abstract freedom he achieves is in itself enough to result in highly engaging works, but there is always another dimension present where ‘the narrative is found in mid-course’ and the extent of these connections make the paintings startlingly profound. Sub meanings seem to occur sometime during the painting, trajectories to what we think is being communicated. So often humour, or the act of play with painterly elements, seems to spill through, only to be checked by a darker or more complicated set of thoughts.
Greek Sequence by Edward Kelly
‘A series of paintings the result of three months wandering in the blistering hot summer of 2021 in the Greek Islands, notably the island and impressive Chora of Serafos. There are stark divisions under the big blue sky stretches the Aegean Sea surrounding the arid burnt islands. To portray the dynamics of temperature & severe light which become the dominant issues demands invention for the greater part, stepping outside the conventions of reference to local colour& tone. Sitting in prominent locations are the white churches each crowned with a budded cross. The budded cross is a central energy and seems to echo the few billowing clouds and the arabesques found in sea & landscape.’
Edward Kelly was born in Liverpool and trained at Liverpool College of Art between 1963 and 1967; he was awarded a John Moores Scholarship and studied in Italy. He has an extensive exhibiting profile including solo exhibitions with Kapil Jariwala Gallery and The Camden Arts Centre in London. His work has been exhibited internationally in group shows in public and private galleries including MOMA in Oxford, Museum Werft Kronhout in Amsterdam and Culture Gallery in New York.
EXHIBITION WORK
