Ann Greene Kelly “May Not Be Private”

Chapter NY

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Chapter NY presents May Not Be Private, a solo exhibition of new work by Ann Greene Kelly. In dialogue with private and public frameworks, Kelly’s sculptural language underscores our expectation and habitation of the spaces we occupy, both internally and in the world.

Attuned to her surroundings, Kelly’s approach to object-making draws from both intimate and exterior structures. Her sculptures materialize somewhere between domestic space and urban wasteland, calling into question the divide between personal and public space. Works like Untitled (Bricked chair with drain), seem at once building and body—a brick construction like bones or some geriatric aid. While others like Untitled (Trashed be) open themselves towards a type of surreal, structural sensuality.

Evocative of both architecture and organism, these objects actively engage with the residue and detritus of human life. Cast baskets become drain-like, alluding to the possibility of discarded waste, while rough-hewn calcite evokes a bottle of collected urine. This debris, whether bodily or industrial, muddles the space between personal leavings and their public visibility.

Whether stone marker or mannequin, Kelly articulates a type of urgency in the body as vessel, carved or cracked open to reveal its contents. Returning to the title pulled from a women’s health pamphlet, these forms articulate the tenuous boundary bridged by the female body in both public and private spheres—a sense that these spaces, however personal, may not be private.

Ann Greene Kelly lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, MD in 2010. She has participated in group shows at White Flag Projects, St. Louis; David Zwirner, New York; and Stems Gallery, Brussels. In 2015, she opened her first solo exhibition at White Columns, New York.