Jay Kelly: Painting and Sculpture

Jay Kelly Recent Work Painting · Sculpture Fall 2020

Jay Kelly: Recent Work Painting · Sculpture Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by gallery artist Jay Kelly. Opening Thursday, November 19th Jay Kelly celebrates clean and fundamentally abstract forms, with a minimalist sensibility. This will be Kelly’s first show of abstract paintings, having worked in small scale sculpture and drawing for many years. Applying oil on linen stretched over 8 x 8” and 11 x 8” irregularly-shaped wood frames, Kelly creates rich, hazy-colored fields and translucent layers bisected by crisp abstract shapes. His recent sculptures, made of wire, nickel silver, wood, gesso, acrylic, and Japanese paper, are no larger than 10” tall. Loosely inspired by Modernist design, these works possess a quiet grace. Structural woven metal shapes, diaphanous Japanese paper nets, and smooth, nonreferential forms are aged with a patina which reflects Kelly’s love for weathered surfaces.

The works in this show are both architectural and organic, with clean lines and meticulous detail.

As seen in the graceful spire of Untitled #518, the lightness of form and acute sense of proportion and color lend these pieces a quiet timelessness. In his new paintings, Kelly scrubs the top layer of paint to reveal deep undertones. His delicate mark-making is accentuated by this soft, weathered look. For example, in Untitled #1970, pointed shapes make up an exacting grid that contrasts with a gentle rust-colored background. Enigmatic details and structural shapes, repeated across his sculptures and paintings, come to life with vibrant earth tones.

Jay Kelly is a self-taught artist living and working in New York City. He began his career as a photorealist painter, shifting his focus to pure abstraction in the late 1990s. His work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The British Museum, London, England; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA; The Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, CT; the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; JP Morgan Chase, New York, NY; Fidelity Investments, New York, NY; and many other private and public collections. For more information, please contact the gallery at info@jimkempner.com or (212) 206-6872.

Untitled #523, 2020 Metal, wood, gesso, acrylic, Japanese paper, archival glue 9 x 3 x 2�

Left: Untitled #501, 2019 Wood, gesso, acrylic 6 x 4 x 4” Right: Untitled #1977, 2020 Oil on linen 11 x 8”

Untitled #1981, 2020 Oil on linen 11 x 8�

Untitled #1970, 2019 Oil on linen 8 x 8�

Left: Untitled #1985, 2020 Oil on gessor vellum mounted on museum board Board: 11 x 16 1/2�

Image: 5 x 10 1/2�

Right: Detailed view of Untiled #1985

Untitled #1975, 2020.

Oil on wood panel.

9 x 9�

Untitled #1976, 2020 Oil on wood panel 9 x 9�

Left: Untitled #508, 2020 Metal 6 1/2 x 3 x 1 3/4�

Right: Detailed view of Untitled #508

Untitled #1964, 2019 Oil on linen 11 x 8�

Untitled #1963, 2019 Oil on linen 8 x 8�

Untitled #1984, 2020 Oil on gessoed vellum mounted on museum board Board: 11 x 15�

Image: 5 x 9�

Untitled #505, 2020 Metal 6 x 4 x 3 3/4�

Untitled #1972, 2019 Oil on linen 11 x 8�

Untitled #485, 2019 Wood, gesso, acrylic 10 x 2 x 2�

Untitled #1986, 2020 Oil on gessoed vellum mounted on museum board Board: 11 x 16 1/4�

Image 5 x 10 1/4�

Untitled #517, 2020 Metal, wood, gesso, acrylic 4 3/4 x 3 x 2 1/4�

Untitled #1960, 2019 Oil on linen 11 x 8�

Untitled #1949, 2019 Oil on linen 8 x 8�

Untitled #499, 2019 Wood, gesso, acrylic 9 x 3 3/4 x 3 1/2�

Untitled #1987, 2020 Oil on gessoed vellum mounted on museum board Board: 11 x 14 3/4�

Image: 5 x 8 3/4�

Untitled #516, 2020 Metal 3 1/2 x 8 x 5�

Untitled #1974, 2020 Oil on linen 11 x 8�

Untitled #504, 2020 Metal 7 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 2 1/4�

Untitled #1988, 2020 Oil on gessoed vellum mounted on museum board Board: 10 3/4 x 15�

Image: 4 3/4 x 9�

Untitled #511, 2020 Wood, gesso, and acrylic 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 2�

Untitled #1958, 2019 Oil on linen 11 x 8�

Untitled #518, 2020 Metal, wood, gesso, and acrylic 15 x 5 1/4 x 4 1/2�

Untitled #1989, 2020 Oil on gessoed vellum mounted on museum board Board: 11 1/4 x 15�

Image: 5 1/4 x 9�

Left: Untitled #1952, 2019 Oil on linen 8 x 8”

Right: Untitled #519, 2020 Wood, gesso, acrylic 6 x 3 x 2”

Untitled #524, 2020 Metal and enamel paint 6 1/2 x 4 x 1 3/4�

Left: Untitled #1961, 2019 Oil on linen 11 x 8” Right: Untitled #515, 2020 Wood, gesso, acrylic 9 3/4 x 4 x 2”

Untitled #520, 2020 Metal 8 x 3 x 1�

Untitled #1971, 2019 Oil on linen 8 x 8�

Untitled #521, 2020 Wood, gesso, acrylic 4 x 6 x 4 3/4�

JIM KEMPNER FINE ART

Jim Kempner Fine Art specializes in contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography, and works on paper, with a special emphasis on contemporary master prints and outdoor sculpture. Our inventory appeals to the established as well as beginning collector. We work closely with art advisors, designers, corporations and museums to expand and enrich their varied collections.

Located in the heart of Chelsea, the gallery’s three story modernist-inspired structure designed by architects Smith & Thompson boasts one of the few outdoor sculpture gardens in New York City, and is included in a number of books about contemporary architecture. Our inventory includes work by Donald Baechler, John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Christo, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Spencer Finch, Jane Hammond, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Jasper Johns, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Jeff Koons, Robert Mangold, Robert Motherwell (Jim Kempner Fine Art represents the Dedalus Foundation, Robert Motherwell’s print archive, in New York), Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Elizabeth Peyton, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Paula Scher, Sean Scully, Frank Stella, Donald Sultan, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol and others.

Among the contemporary artists whose work we represent are Robert Attanasio, Christopher Beane, Stanley Casselman, Long Bin Chen, Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez, Rinaldo Frattolillo, Gianfranco Gorgoni, John Grande, John Henry, Charlie Hewitt, Jay Kelly, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Jerry Mischak, David Mitchell, Craig Norton, Greg Parker, Robert Petersen, Randy Regier, Tom Slaughter, Pal Svensson and Boaz Vaadia.

Formerly a private dealer, Jim Kempner opened his gallery, Jim Kempner Fine Art, at its present location in the fall of 1997. Jim Kempner has published prints by Rinaldo Frattolillo, Charlie Hewitt, Robert Indiana, Paula Scher, Bernar Venet, in addition to Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photographs of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Other publications include Ligorano/Reese’s Line Up portfolio, Untitled 2001 silkscreen, and the DEMOCRACY lightbox, made in collaboration with former gallery director Dru Arstark, under the name Madness of Art Editions. Additionally, he has published his first editioned print, Apocryphal Now, in 2014.

501 West 23rd Street

New York, NY 10011

info@jimkempner.com

(212) 206-6872

www.jimkempnerfineart.com