JUAN KELLY

t r a n s f i g u r a t i o n s

[ december 17th - january 3rd, 2010 ]

q + a with artist > fri, dec 17, 4:30 pm

opening champagne reception >
fri, dec 17, 5 - 7 pm

In artist Juan Kelly’s newest body of work physical transformations hold center stage. While the protagonists of the visual metaphors maintain certain levels of realism and therefore are recognizable objects, some of the elements in the paintings offered up thier forms to the point of becoming absolute abstractions. Kelly  brings together, into one world, two forms of art that still maintain their own identity thus creating a strong sense of magic and transformation.

Over the years many artists have tried with varying degrees of success to bring the worlds of the abstract and figurative together, usually trying to find a middle ground between the two and thereby sacrificing the fullness of each individual expression. In the treatment that Kelly proposes, each art form maintains the full spectrum of their expressive power. To be able to do this, Kelly, known for his superb sense of composition, offers this explanation:

“For a painting to be successful it must present one world. I did not want to sacrifice their inherent natures (objective and nonobjective) so one form had to be the leader, and in this group it is the recognizable elements that use the non-recognizable ones to fulfill the spectrum of their experience”

Kelly’s new work quietly exudes a sense of peacefulness, harmony and beauty with landscape-like quality to it.  “I wanted to take all external emotions of my characters away from their facial expressions” Kelly explains, “and internalize them...expressing them through every single fiber of their body, objects and non-objects”

In an expansive move, Kelly has stepped away from his usual playful and colorful paintings of animals with psychological undertones. His new work embodies a physical as well as an emotional transfiguration of the objects he portrays.