NYAB Event - Khalif Kelly "Metamorphosis"

Khalif Kelly "Metamorphosis"

Thierry Goldberg

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Thierry Goldberg Projects presents Metamorphosis, new paintings by Khalif Kelly. In the exhibition, Kelly merges classic narrative struggles from childrenʼs literature with a contemporary visual sensibility. He makes references to L. Frank Baum, the Grimm brothers, and Lewis Carroll, mixed with American anti-slavery literature. The fairy tale gives Kelly a setting to explore ideas of good versus evil and concepts of heroism. Filtering traditional stories through the video game, Kelly explores literature as technology, an extension of the self and mind, with painting as a site for change.

Originally inspired by the 1930s controversial animated Puppetoons of George Pal, Kellyʼs paintings have evolved from the smooth round modeling of plasticine to a superflat pixelation that evokes a more recent history of early video games. This style refers to the gameʼs invitation to the gamer, in this case the viewer, to enter the narrative and not only have sympathy for the protagonist but to become the protagonist through play. In Kellyʼs world, the hero is the Robot Piccaninny, the mechanised version of the traditional stereotype of African Americans as children, the burden of which the viewer takes on by transference through video gaming.

Paradoxically, the flat surface adds more depth of context, suggesting the interactivity of video games as an extension of the imagination and exploration of identity. By bringing racially motivated tales to the space of early video games, physical identity is virtually lost, abstracted by the uniformity of the pixel. Kelly likens this mode to a state without “the burden of realism,” thus thwarting discriminationʼs gaze. In Kellyʼs digitized world, difference in appearance—once target of segregation and dehumanization—is something to be embraced, the key to making the child heroes more human, their valuable link to the real world.

Khalif Kelly, born in Nashville, Tennessee, lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.