Solo show by Kelly Ording
Opening reception Thursday, August 2, 2007, 7-10 pm
Show runs August 2 - September 1, 2007
Native to Northern California Kelly Ording began creating art as a ceramicist, which in time led her to New Zealand where she worked making pottery for a year. Having had this experience Ording decided to return to the United States and attend the
San Francisco Art Institute. It was there that she began painting and has continued painting for over ten years.
Throughout her studies Ording had frequently taken time to travel extensively, which can be seen in the renderings of both experiences and places she had visited. Her work is primarily based upon memories, dreams, or fantasies; paintings often
remind the viewer of something that alludes to an existing place while remaining entirely fictional. Not always interested in recreating literal scenes or objects the artist often prefers to show the viewer the imagined.
Working primarily on paper she finds herself drawn to it’s textural flexibility as well as the absorbtion of dying agents creating her trademark backdrops while being able to apply layers with a collection of materials including pencils, pens
and gauche. During this comprehensive process each piece undergoes an expedited aging progression including dyeing, ripping, and soaking before it is painted. In turn creating a delicate and fragile work with an air of something antediluvian.
While continuously binary in nature, Kelly’s work alternates between abstract and representative. It’s not foreign to see both elements with frequency in every piece. Opposing forces, uncontrollable and deliberate, antiquity and modern, mathematical design and organic form are what drive Ording’s art. Further emphasizing this idea, she creates contemporary pieces on surfaces appearing to be aged whilst using imagery such that emphasis anything exotic, fantastic and or a representation of freedom, wonder and escape.
