Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by gallery artist Jay Kelly. The exhibition features recent sculptures and paintings and is on view online through Spring 2020. 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 #509, 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.