Steckline Gallery: Kevin Kelly – Taco Bell Interior

Kevin P. Kelly has been “conditioned to approach abstract painting as an interior space that blends personal, emotional release with the modernist desire to seek out perfected form. The emphasis is on withdrawal, and perhaps a higher plane of perception and expression. I am using this interior space of the abstract object to explore elements from the exterior world that are in flux and mundane. The titles, colors, and textures come from sources that are decidedly non-contemplative (convenience food, the clutter of domestic life, experiences at work, etc.). In this work, collage and masking techniques are metaphors for interruption and the collision of competing contexts. I am looking for moments when concerns for the everyday displace the modernist tendency for isolation. I am also looking for moments when the everyday becomes painterly. While working through the layers of a piece, I am at times trying to freeze or deflate an artistic gesture, and at times trying to reanimate the frozen gesture. I want the work to be driven by the play between the exterior and interior forces that drive our lives.”