MARY KELLY

Mary Kelly came to prominence with Post-Partum Document (1973-79), a sociological study of the intersubjective relationship between mother and child. The work was first exhibited at the ICA, London in 1976: it is now considered one of the most important feminist works of art produced in the twentieth century. Other significant installations include Interim (1984-89), Gloria Patri (1992), Mea Culpa (1999), The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi (2001), Love Songs (2005-07) and the Circa Trilogy (2004-16).

Mary Kelly (b. 1941, Fort Dodge, Iowa) lives and works in Los Angeles. Kelly’s work has been the subject of major institutional exhibitions at ICA, London (1976 and 1993); Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1977); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1986); New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY (1990); Vancouver Art Gallery (1991); Generali Foundation, Vienna (1998); Santa Monica Museum of Art (2001); Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2008); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2010); Whitworth, Manchester (2011). Kelly was represented in the 1991 and 2004 Whitney Biennials, Whitney Museum, NY; Documenta 12, Kassel, 2007 and 2008 Biennale of Sydney. In 2015, she was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.

In 2024 Bloomsbury published Mary Kelly’s Concentric Pedagogy: Selected Writings, edited by Juli Carson. She is currently included in Vital Signs, Artists and the Body, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, and Ideas Into Action: 1965-1980, a collection presentation at Tate Britain, London. Later this year she will be included in Women in Revolt! Art, Activism and the Women’s Movement in the United Kingdom 1970 – 1__1990, The Whitworth, Manchester (2025), travelled from Tate Britain, London (2023-24) and The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,1Edinburgh (2024-25); Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2025), travelled from __Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2024); Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham, UK (2024); and Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (2024-25); and a group exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, France. Recent institutional exhibitions include Whitney Biennial 2024, Even Better Than the Real Thing, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; La Répétition, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Paris, France (2023-25); Inheritance, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2023); To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MA (2022-23); Picturing Motherhood Now, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2022), The Condition of Being Addressable, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2022), amongst others.

Recent solo shows include Mary Kelly: To Witness the Future, Art Gallery of Guelph, Ontario (2023), having travelled from Georgetown University’s De La Cruz Art Gallery (2022); Mary Kelly: Corpus, Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Mary Kelly: Selected Works, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC (2019), _Peace is the Only Shelte_r, Desert X Biennale, Coachella Valley, CA (2019); and Face-to-Face, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2018).

Kelly’s work is included in numerous public collections, including Tate, London; The Museum of Modern Art, NY; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; MOCA, Los Angeles; Arts Council England; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and many others. In 2017, Kelly’s archive was acquired by the Getty Research Institute.

Courtesy Pippy Houldsworth Gallery