On the heels of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment's passage granting women the right to vote, the Gallery will feature pioneering and influential artist Kelly. Best known for her 1970s conceptual art installation Post-Partum Document, she will present works made from 2005 to the present that explore her long engagement with women's activist movements. Highlights from past series, a happenings plus documentation of prior performances will be on view. A related series of innovative public programs will occur online in the fall and onsite in the spring.
Kelly first came to prominence in the 1970s with a practice that was both highly conceptual and unapologetically political. Though she was known as a socialist who tried to unionize artists alongside factory workers, and as a boundary pusher who brought feminism to the testosterone-driven realm of conceptual art, arguably the most radical aspect of her work, especially in its early years, was its insistence that maternity and domesticity were worthy subjects of serious creative expression. At a time when many conceptual artists were focused on violence and transgression — Chris Burden dragging his half-naked body across a parking lot strewn with glass; Paul McCarthy smearing himself with paint, ketchup, mayonnaise, raw meat and feces — Kelly’s early work was almost understated and excruciatingly intimate, with an emphasis on motherhood, pregnancy and reproductive sexuality.
