BRIAN KELLY

ARTIST BIO

Brian Kelly received an M.F.A. in Printmaking at Louisiana State University (1995) and a B.F.A. in Printmaking from Northern Illinois University (1992). Professor Kelly serves as Head of the Printmaking program and is Coordinator of Marais Press at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Kelly holds the Universities Coca Cola/BORSF Endowed Professorship and has been recognized as a University of Louisiana at Lafayette University Distinguished Professor, and a UL Lafayette Eminent Faculty for Leadership and Service, has received the Dr. Ray P. Authement Excellence in Teaching Award, and the UL Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award.

Kelly has presented and conducted printmaking workshops and lectures throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.

Kelly’s prints have been exhibited throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Poland, England, Scotland, and Slovenia and his prints are in the collections of The United States Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, Southern Graphics International Printmaking Archives, the Block Museum, the Spencer Museum of Art, The Montana Museum of Art & Culture, The Hilliard Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, the University of Arizona Museum of Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, Museum of Texas Tech University, Janet Turner Print Museum, the Northern Illinois University Art Museum, the University of Colorado, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Alabama, University of North Carolina at Pawbroke, The University of South Florida, University of South Dakota, University of North Dakota, University of Central Florida, among others.

ARTIST MEMBER SINCE 1996

BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS (PRINTMAKING), NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

MASTER OF FINE ARTS (PRINTMAKING), LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

CURRENT EXHIBITION

OCTOBER 2-25

LAST FLIGHT

ARTIST STATEMENT

In my estimation, image making is a journey into the unseen – never the unknown. When I look down on a sheet of paper, or a freshly ground stone, I know there is a yet-to-be-discovered image within the surface.

When a work begins, I have no specific agenda, just an attitude of energy, personal memories, and a love for just pure drawing. The work evolves, beginning with one form leading to the next, and so on. This playing of forms off of each other results in a puzzling assortment of figures and shapes that move through an apparently irrational though structured world.

My work draws its influence from the environments located outside and throughout Louisiana to those that I travel and explore throughout Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, and Canada. These landscapes feed both compositional structure and rhythms within my work. My work embraces both the abstract and representational. The prints are narratives that talk about time and place along with specific experiences that are social, personal, and political in nature.

Figurative images of animals are adopted and personified as characters within these narrative events to speak metaphorically about personal and social issues and are presented in a motionless state. It is as if they were specimens or scenes that become little glimpses of a world outside of, or removed from, the human realm.

The compositions tend to be overflowing with imagery and seemingly chaotic but always grounded in a strong sense of structural formalism and a pure love for the rendering. While I do not intend for, or expect the viewer to be concerned with the specific personal event that might inspire an image, I do intend to engage them with that event’s peculiar and evocative presence. I want the viewer to react, explore, and interpret these surreal worlds, filled with their fantastic beasts, humans, critters, timelessness, and at times humor.

CURRENT WORKS

Brian Kelly Oct2026