Steve Kelly (b1971)
Kelly lives and works in Wilmington, North Carolina. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where in his anarchic and turbulent teenage years he found a sense of peace in clay. He received a BFA in ceramics and painting at the University of Montana, and went on to apprentice with a master potter in the hills of Virginia. After years of teaching ceramics and operating a successful pottery, Kelly felt drawn to make abstract forms—objects with no direct utility. In 2018, he enrolled in the MFA program at Maine College of Art, and in the years that have followed has developed a new portfolio of sculptural objects and installations. His sculptural work is both playful and earnest. Primarily made of ceramics, often embellished with other materials, his installations explore objects, space, ontology, and how it all fits together. At the core of his sculpture is an investigation of the withdrawn, of wisdom that can only be intuited or felt. Through complicated, interactive object-landscapes, Kelly’s sculptures set up opportunities for metaphysical insight.