What We Do In The Shadows
Kelly Zellers
Public opening reception 5/1 from 4-6 PM
On view in the gallery and on our website April 27th-May 26th, 2024
Capacity Contemporary Exchange
Kelly had always been fascinated by the natural and metaphysical world. How can we make sense of a place that we can’t see? Painting bridges that gap for her, by using color and mark-making to communicate how we might exist in those spaces we can’t touch or move. Solid shapes within a gossamer world of light and shadow. Kelly loves science, but is not a scientist. She is a ponderer, and wonders how time, space, earth and our souls interact with each other.
Color is a large part of Kelly’s practice, and often refers to it as the Fluorescent Swamp. Neon pinks and lemon yellows are big, exciting, electric ideas, but the muddy greens and browns are just as beautiful. Is it moss, or fungus, or even the empty universe? Kelly wants the viewer to try to see what’s happening under the paint, to follow it where it goes, to its origins.
Kelly uses layering as a way to communicate. Heavy, opaque applications convey more confident ideas, while watered down, sheer washes are more intriguing, quiet, and mysterious. What’s under there and where does it end?
The process of painting fills her with curiosity and wonder and hopes the finished work gives the viewer a place to look, a space and moment to consider the beauty and value in not knowing the answers for everything.
About the Artist
Kelly Zellers is a Louisville-based mixed media artist and painter. After studying fine arts at Indiana University Southeast, she has continued to develop her style as an abstract painter, letting vibrant colors and texture tell a story. Her spontaneous and intuitive way of working has influenced an interest in working with paint, fabric, light, and found objects.
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