Mikey Kelly

STATEMENT

This new body of work starts with the architecture of an analog program. Using polyalphabetic ciphers and numeric algorithmic systems I developed a design automation that allows language based inputs to be translated into directional code. This code dictates the line width and angle of each series. The overlaying of color and subsequent lines allow the painting to shift and change with each addition, finally revealing itself upon completion.

These paintings are meant to be neurally and optically challenging. Experienced in person perspective distortion allows multiple reads and pushes the viewer’s eyes to higher levels of resolution.

BIO

Born in California in 1972, Mikey Kelly is a contemporary artist living and working in Napa, CA.

Kelly exhibits regularly, including shows at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary (Oakland, CA), Art Market (San Francisco, CA), Miami Project (Miami, FL), Franklin Parrasch Gallery (New York, NY) Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI) Crocker Kingsley Museum (Sacramento, CA), Startup Art Fair (San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA), Kala Gallery (Berkeley, CA), Berkeley Art Center (Berkeley, CA), and Bedford Gallery (Walnut Creek, CA). His work has been shown nationally and is included in several public, private and corporate collections.

He has recently been an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA and at Lucid Art Foundation in Inverness, CA.

Education
Cranbrook Academy of Art, MFA
University of Oregon, BA