Art House 310 First Friday – Kevin Kelly
Opening Reception | First Friday May 7th, 2021 | 6-10pm

This event is free to attend and open to the public.

Show hangs through May 23rd, 2021.

KEVIN KELLY was born in 1978 and raised in Colorado and Kansas.  He received a Bachelor in art education from Wichita State University in 2001, and began teaching at Wichita West High School the same year.  He earned his MFA in painting from Wichita State University in 2008. His artwork is held in many private collections and has been recognized through the I Like Your Work podcast, the Golden artist residence, the Harvester Arts Community Fellowship program, and the Oklahoma Visual Arts Commission.  Kelly has been featured in group and solo exhibits in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New York for the last 15 years.  His work has been featured in several publications, including New American Paintings, Studio Visit magazine, and the book Wichita Artists in Their Studios.

ARTIST STATEMENT: Unda Presha
In some ways, quarantine suited me. The exuberance of a new spring mixed with the withdrawal of a second winter. It provided plenty of energy and space to work artistically so long as I could stand up against the enormous weight that was pushing down on all of us. These pieces began in that compressed space of last March and have continued to grow as they parallel other forces and work in my life. The challenge has been to work with limited materials and a small format to freeze a painterly gesture. I process my experiences by matching verbs with art materials — tearing apart old paintings to make way for new possibilities, cutting away the unnecessary bits, forcing paint to read surfaces through a screen, through rubbings, or by being run over. Ultimately, I want this body of work to reflect the conflict between play and the pressures of our time.