Melbourne born artist Carmen Kelly currently resides in Singapore. Her art practice and passion lie in the creation of hand-woven suspended wire sculptures.
Carmen spent most of her working years as a Graphic Designer, while always continuing to create art. Although painting, drawing and contemporary mixed media have informed earlier work, this current art practice of hand weaving and manipulating copper wire into organic sculptural forms is truly her passion. A labour of love, this repetitive but cathartic form of weaving is self-taught. Carmen continues to explore the technique, pushing the possibilities of the medium to create aesthetically interesting pieces that bring joy to the viewer.
“I am obsessed with positive and negative, with light and shade, and with a play between the planned and the random. Juxtapositions, opposites – it’s all of interest. My work reflects those very elements. The idea that wire, so ordinary and hard, can be manipulated into something quite beautiful, light and complex. That a planned piece will always develop a little randomly because it’s handmade and imperfect. And light and shade, an ever-present element when changeable light passes through sculptures, creates shadows. Shadows that become part of those artworks.”
Education
2018 California State University East Bay, Northern California, USA, Certificate in Museum & Art Gallery Studies
1991 RMIT, Bundoora Campus, Melbourne, Australia, Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design)
1988 Footscray College of Tafe, Melbourne, Australia,Certificate in Art & Design
1987 LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia, Art History, French, English Literature 1987
Recent Exhibitions
2022 On a Loop, The Parvis, Singapore
2018 ‘A City of Art’, Walnut Creek Hub, California
2017 ‘Driven to Distraction’, Lindsay Dirx Brown Gallery, San Ramon, California
2015 ‘Circle’, 17 Artspace, Victoria University, Melbourne
2010 ‘Haunt Substitute’, 69 Smith Street, Fitzroy
2009 ‘The Shine-ing Hunt Club Salon’, Hunt Club, Deer Park
2009 ‘Real’, Hunt Club, Deer Park
2007 ‘Praxis’, Hunt Club, Deer Park