Mary Reid Kelley

Mary Reid Kelley (born 1979) is an American artist based in upstate New York.

Life Mary Reid Kelley was born in Greenville, SC in 1979. She received her BFA from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and a MFA in painting from Yale University in 2009.

Reid Kelley is represented by the galleries Pilar Corrias in London, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects in Los Angeles, CA and Fredericks & Freiser in New York, NY. For example, in her 2015 short film, The Thong of Dionysus, she integrates her drawing and painting skills in the set's background as seen by the harshly drawn and sharply outlined portraits behind the minotaur. Her use of contrasting black and white further adds a cartoonish quality to her works, perpetuating the line between comedy and serious subject matter that Reid Kelley's works tend to play with.

While studying at Yale, Reid Kelley benefited greatly from the archives of students who had left for World War One, realizing the importance of poetry for understanding both artistic and popular culture of the time. (2008), the Queen's English (2008), Sadie the Saddest Sadist (2009), and You Make Me Iliad (2010).

Interweaving historical and literary references, euphemisms, and clever puns within the parameters of rhyming verse, her scripts are both humorous and complex. Her humorous lines are delivered with a deadpan quality, emphasizing the effectiveness of both her acting and writing styles.

You Make Me Iliad (2010) You Make Me Iliad is a work created by Reid Kelley in 2010. The work is 14 minutes long and 49 seconds, and it is shot completely in black and white. Reid Kelley was inspired to tell the story of her World War One heroine after discovering that most literature of the World War One era was written by men, leading to her heroine's story largely being narrated by the men in her life. This choice both reflects the problems of archival records that have largely been shaped by male voices and the irony of a woman's story being told by men who are largely ignorant to such experiences. was created by Reid Kelley in 2011. The work is 11 minutes long and two seconds, and it is shot completely in black and white. As in her other works, Reid Kelley intertwines her poetic storytelling with humorous additions to bring light to the story of a forgotten and doomed woman in a highly romanticized time period: the French La Belle Époque. 2013: Mary Reid Kelley, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts July 10 – October 18, 2014: Mary Reid Kelley: Working Objects and Videos, University Art Museum, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY February 11–27, 2016: The Syphilis of Sisyphus, Rosebud (satellite gallery of the Rose Art Museum), Waltham, MA November 17, 2017 – March 18, 2018: Mary Reid Kelley: We Are Ghosts, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK April 4 – August 29, 2018: Mary Reid Kelly: We Are Ghosts, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD