2022 New Editions: Robert Kelly
Robert Kelly, Onda III, 2021. Click to view.
Robert Kelly, Onda IV, 2021. Click to view.
Robert Kelly slowly builds up rich surfaces for his paintings by applying multiple layers of pigment, glazes, and found papers to a canvas or panel. Kelly easily adapted this working method within the Tandem Press studio to develop his Onda series of print editions, including two new prints titled Onda III and Onda IV.
These artworks were created by first printing a warm background tone on a sheet of Okawara paper, a Japanese paper similar to many of the papers Kelly incorporates into his painting surfaces. An arrangement of multiple woodblocks was then inked up and printed over the background. The prints were completed with the application of collaged shapes cut from additional sheets of Okawara paper that had been intaglio printed with flats of color.
Working within the formal puzzles that he sets up for himself, Robert Kelly’s work often investigates an idea of doubleness. Kelly has a twin brother, and he considers the closeness associated with twins as he constructs his compositions. He creates pairs of companion pieces using forms and shapes that reflect and/or oppose each other. It is not Kelly’s intention that these companion pieces perfectly mirror each other, but he does purposefully create them with many similar attributes, as seen in the pairing of Onda I with Onda II (created in 2019) and Onda III with Onda IV. The title Onda—meaning “wave” in Spanish and Portuguese—highlights the ebb and flow movement that defines the relationships formed between the curved shapes of these compositions.
