October 5 – November 16, 2017
Artist Talk at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary Moderated by Rory Padeken, Associate Curator at San Jose Museum of Art
Thursday, October 5, 6-7:30pm
Opening Reception: Friday, October 6, 6-8pm
First Friday Reception: Friday, November 3, 6-8pm
Oakland, CA – Chandra Cerrito Contemporary is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of work by Bay Area artist Mikey Kelly from October 6 to November 16, 2017.
Mikey Kelly’s Vibrate highlights new work by Bay Area artist Mikey Kelly. Kelly’s recent acrylic paintings continue his interest in process-driven linear compositions that are optically charged. Reminiscent of woven textiles and Op Art by artists like Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gilbert Hsiao, and Susie Rosmarin, his dynamic fields of interference patterns come alive with a viewer’s interaction. This experiential and perceptual confrontation seems to underlie Kelly’s motivations and keep the viewer actively engaged.
For many years, Kelly has utilized pre-determined mathematical patterns, or algorithms, that dictate the color and angle of each painted or drawn line to create unpredictable visual patterns. His new paintings use ciphers that encode language as a means to arrive at compositions. Interested in, as Kelly describes it, “spirituality hacking,” his paintings reference texts by spiritual leaders like Ram Dass and Meher Baba, New Age phrases like “affirmations,” and tools of Eastern religion like “mantras.” Each work is a prayer manifesting positivity. In fact, circular canvases are rotated like a prayer wheel as part of their making. While Kelly considers a diverse array of spiritual topics intellectually and as a structural device, he also embodies the practices they espouse through a necessarily sustained, repetitive painting process. In the end, slowly accumulated energy is barely contained, radiating through the painted surface.
Check gallery website for hours and additional info
