Robert Kelly: The Pearl Diver and Other Stories
September 1 - 30, 2023
Robert Kelly
There are stories everywhere. The story of the artist. The story of the magpie. The story of the stone on the beach. The story of the painting. The story of the goddess. The story of the buried city. The story of the sun-bleached bone. And our own story – which itself is really the weave of a thousand thousand stories, flaring out, radiating around us, brushing up against the other stories of the world.
But often enough, we don’t hear them, don’t notice. Get tangled in noise, lose the thread. This is when sometimes the world reaches out to us, offering a spark, a reminder. It might be a crow landing at your feet. It might be a particular stone on a beach.
It might be a painting: Aging paper, layered, overlaid, ghosted with images and text; cut, covered, framed and highlighted by thick, sensuous black geometric forms. Through the yellowed layers, a strangely winged figure emerges. Around him, half-revealed, half-concealed by those black forms, strange shapes and unknowable words.
This is The Pearl Diver, one of the pieces included in the eponymous exhibition, The Pearl Diver and Other Stories which brings Santa Fe native, Robert Kelly, back to New Mexico with his first exhibition here since 2012. This exhibition includes works from several different themed series (Mimesis, Tales of Lakshmi, Boneyard, Nocturne, El Señor, and Ash to Ash) though all of these are created with Kelly’s unique process.
This starts with a canvas surfaced, layer by layer, with up to 30 strata of paper, coated and affixed with a viscous polymer, gridded at right angles, and then overlaid with the
special old, archival papers that Kelly finds and collects on his travels. These papers can be old movie posters, advertisements, handbills, newsletters, placards, announcements. Often, they are printed with text in a variety of languages. These papers are always faced backward so that their surface is facing toward the verso. This, as Kelly says, is “history looking back on itself, like Vermeer painting himself, painting the woman in the window.” Finally, the piece is glazed with an oil-based medium, and then it is ready for Kelly’s oil painting of forms. The geometric forms themselves are exquisitely precise. Balanced tonally with the faded paper surfaces and yet completely integrated and responsive to the complex patterns that have been gridded and aligned beneath. There is an intricate dialogue at work between the forms and the layers, between past and present.
Metaphors abound: History’s enigma. Time’s cipher. Collage. Archeology. Palimpsests. Ghosts. Phantom limbs. The strata of a cliff-face reading off geological ages. Stone masons. Stories. And each of these metaphors is not exclusive of the others, but rather, interconnected, as in the Buddhist metaphor of Indra’s net. This net is a vast, universespanning web with a multifaceted jewel (or pearl) at each connection point. Each jewel in the net contains the reflection of every other jewel. And each reflected jewel contains the reflections of all the others. Infinite. A representation of how all phenomena in the universe are connected and interpenetrating.
Multifaceted and nuanced as they are, there are many ways to know Kelly’s work. Kelly’s modernist sensibilities hail back to influences such as Bauhaus, De Stijl, the
Constructivists, the Supremacists. Kelly finds himself fascinated by a sort of seamless meeting place between the “high-minded formalism” of Mondrian and the “soulful purity” of Morandi. However, Kelly’s roots in New Mexico could offer nearly as important a perspective on his work. The region’s layered history is palpable in its architecture and landscape. And beyond even the human history there is a significance, a something more, that seems to resonate in its natural light and colors.
This is where the experience of Kelly’s work distills toward essences. With global references and sources, with sensibility meeting precision of skill, perhaps what pulls the viewer closer is something both unique and universal. Kelly has said, “Finding a stone (on a beach walk) draws our attention through form, shape, polish and substance, and suggests a connectivity created by this momentary flash of recognition. A pause. Paintings call at us this way….”
Stories. The work of Robert Kelly offers us reminders of connectivity, pulling us back into a world of meaning, where even the most mundane objects and experiences are freighted with significance. Without being in any way narrative or figurative, these paintings act as jewels in the net – the many layers, stories, refracting, reflecting. They remind us of the mystery and complexity of the world, and of our own stories, our place within the web.
- Michaela Kahn, PhD
Portrait of Lakshmi, 2023, oil/mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Tales of Lakshmi (Dharma), 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Tales of Lakshmi (Moon Blossom), 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Tales of Lakshmi (Grace), 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Tales of Lakshmi (Love), 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Tales of Lakshmi (Abundance), 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Mimesis Noir (Blow Up), 2023, oil/mixed media on canvas, 82 x 54 inches
Tropicale Nocturne IV, 2023, oil/mixed media on canvas, 72 x 58 inches
Maud’s Nocturne, 2022, oil/mixed media on canvas, 72 x 58 inches
Mimesis Voluptas, 2022 oil/mixed media on canvas, 72 x 58 inches
Mimesis Noir VII, 2022, oil/mixed media on canvas, 72 x 58 inches
El Señor I, 2015, oil/mixed media on linen, Frame: 34.25 x 29.625 inches,
El Señor III, 2015, oil/mixed media on linen, Frame: 34.25 x 29.625 inches,
Painting: 26 x 21.5 inches
Painting: 26 x 21.5 inches
El Señor II, 2015, oil/mixed media on linen, Frame: 34.25 x 29.625 inches, Painting: 26 x 21.5 inches
Mimesis Noir II, 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Mimesis Rouge II, 2023, mixed media on panel, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
The Pearl Diver, 2023, oil/mixed media on panel, Frame: 29.5 x 24.25 inches, Painting: 22 x 17 inches
Boneyard I, 2023, mixed media on board, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Boneyard II, 2023, mixed media on board, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Boneyard III, 2023, mixed media on board, Frame: 24 x 21 inches, Painting: 17 x 14 inches
Portrait of Lakshmi, 2023 oil/mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK041
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
$15,000 Tales of Lakshmi (Dharma), 2023 mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK024
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Tales of Lakshmi (Moon Blossom), 2023 mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK027
Click to inquire about this work
Tales of Lakshmi (Grace), 2023 mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK023
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Tales of Lakshmi (Abundance), 2023
mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK026
Click to inquire about this work
Mimesis Noir (Blow Up), 2023 oil/mixed media on canvas
82 x 54 in.
RK019
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$15,000
Tales of Lakshmi (Love), 2023 mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK025
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
$15,000
Tropicale Nocturne IV, 2023 oil/mixed media on canvas
72 x 58 in.
RK036
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$80,000
Maud’s Nocturne, 2022 oil/mixed media on canvas
72 x 58 in.
RK031
Click to inquire about this work
$75,000
Mimesis Voluptas, 2022 oil/mixed media on canvas
72 x 58 in.
RK033
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$75,000
$75,000
Mimesis Noir VII, 2022 oil/mixed media on canvas
72 x 58 in.
RK032
Click to inquire about this work
$75,000
El Señor I, 2015 oil/mixed media on linen
Frame: 34.25 x 29.625 in.
Painting: 26 x 21.5 in.
RK037
Click to inquire about this work
$30,000
$30,000 El Señor III, 2015 oil/mixed media on linen
Frame: 34.25 x 29.625 in.
Painting: 26 x 21.5 in.
RK039
Click to inquire about this work
$30,000 El Señor II, 2015 oil/mixed media on linen
Frame: 34.25 x 29.625 in.
Painting: 26 x 21.5 in.
RK038
Click to inquire about this work
Mimesis Noir II, 2023 mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK022
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$15,000
Mimesis Rouge II, 2023 mixed media on panel
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK021
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The Pearl Diver, 2023 oil/mixed media on canvas
Frame: 29.5 x 24.25 in.
Painting: 22 x 17 in.
RK020
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Boneyard I, 2023 mixed media on board
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK028
Click to inquire about this work
$18,000
Boneyard II, 2023 mixed media on board
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK029
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Boneyard III, 2023 mixed media on board
Frame: 24 x 21 in.
Painting: 17 x 14 in.
RK030
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
$15,000
1956 Born, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Lives and works in New York City
Education:
1978 BA, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Awards & Fellowships:
2013 Palm Springs Invited Guest Artist Award
1982 Finalist, Massachusetts Council of the Arts Grant, Drawing
1981 Finalist, Massachusetts Council of the Arts Grant, Painting
Michael Karolyi Memorial Foundation, Artist in Residence, Vence, France
1980 MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Selected Solo Exhibition:
2023 The Pearl Diver and Other Stories, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2022 Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Acumulos, Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY
Untitled/Solo Presentation, Art Basel Miami / Frameless Gallery, London, England
2018 Mimesis, Parker Projects Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2016 Black On Bone, Sophia Contemporary Gallery London, England
Constructions/Construcoes, Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporanea, Brazil
Concealed to Revealed, Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LI
2015 Mercedes Viegas Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Galleri Weinberger, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013 Quintenz Gallery & David Floria, Aspen, CO
2012 James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2010 Spazio Bianco - Relais San Maurizio/ AR Contemporary Art, Italy
2009 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 Leslie Feely Fine Art, New York, NY
Robert Kelly /Mel Kendrick, David Floria Gallery, Aspen, CO
2007 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM
Tres Americas, Galeria Emma Molina, Monterrey, Mexico
David Floria Gallery, Aspen, CO
2006 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX
2005 AR Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy
Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Doug Udell Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
2004 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
2003 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
2002 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Doug Udell Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2001 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM
2000 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX
Barbara Singer Fine Art, Cambridge, MA
1999 Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM
Betsy Senior Gallery, New York, NY
1998 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
1997 Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM
Erickson and Elins Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
1996 Sarah Dobbs Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
Hand Graphics, Santa Fe, NM
1995 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM
Erickson and Elins Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
1994 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
1993 Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY
Erickson and Elins Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
1992 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY
1990 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
1989 Galleri Weinberger, Copenhagen, Denmark
1988 Maloney Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1987 Victoria Munroe Fine Art, New York, NY
1985 Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
1983 Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
1981 Boston Now, Institute of Contemporary Art
1978 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1976 Rainbow Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1974 Plaza Gallery, Santa Fe Fiesta, Santa Fe, NM
Museum Collections:
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
The Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Smith College Art Museum, Northampton, MA
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutger’s University, NJ
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
The Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Margulies Collection, Miami, FL
The McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
