Lee Kelly | Recent Work
June 3 – July 31, 2021
Exhibition Tour: Lee Kelly & Judy Cooke
Join us via Facebook Live or YouTube
Thursday, June 3, 2021, 6:00 pm PST
The Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present Recent Work by Lee Kelly, featuring steel sculptures, cast bronze forms and figurative watercolors. The exhibition focuses on new works inspired by past writings, musings and studies found inside the pages of the artist’s studio sketchbooks.
Kelly’s travel inspirations are evident in the sculptural works that range in scale from immense standing sculptures to intimately sized cast bronze pieces. The lyrical imagery synthesizes modernist and ancient aesthetics, as exemplified in Tibetan Wedding, 2020, where the central figure of the circular trio appears to be residing over a ceremony between two zig-zagged shaped forms perched on rudimentary wheels. Swirling markings on the steel’s surface are made by a grinder tool that texturizes and activates the metal, allowing brilliant light reflections at every vantage point. The end result evokes a feeling of exuberant celebration.
In a quieter contemplative work, Yucatan Unicycle, 2020, includes an elongated vertical shape balanced on a bisected wheel-like structure at the base. The form communicates the strength and frailty of the human body sitting solidly balanced and grounded in place, while its Cor-ten steel patina is intended to weather and evolve over time.
Lee Kelly is one of the most revered artists in the Pacific Northwest, best known for his monumental public sculptures throughout Oregon and the surrounding region. Born in 1932 in McCall, Idaho, Lee Kelly graduated from the Museum Art School at the Portland Art Museum (now known as the Pacific Northwest College of Art, PNCA) in 1959. Kelly's long, prestigious career and prolific nature have resulted in a significant body of work which can be seen in public and private collections throughout the country, including the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA), New Orleans Art Museum (New Orleans, LA), Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA) and the City of Sapporo, Japan. As one of the most recognized artists in the Northwest, his modernist sculptures are a central focus at regional institutions such as Reed College, Oregon State University, Catlin Gabel School, the Oregon Health and Sciences University and the Washington Park Rose Garden. In 2012, one of his most significant works, Memory 99, was installed in Portland's North Park blocks, at the new home of PNCA. Kelly has been exhibiting at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery since the early 1980s. In 2010, he was the subject of a major career retrospective at the Portland Art Museum.
