John Kelly (performance artist)


John Kelly is an American performance artist, visual artist and writer. His work first gained notoriety in the 1980s East Village art scene, and in the last 40 years Kelly has received two Bessie Awards, two Obie Awards, two NEA American Masterpiece Awards, an American Choreographer Award, a Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, a Visual AIDS Vanguard Award, and an Ethyl Eichelberger Award. His work has been presented at Lincoln Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Biography

John Kelly began his performance career in New York's Lower East Side in the 1980s at clubs such as Limbo Lounge, Pyramid Club, and Club 57. Since then, his works have been performed at The Kitchen, La MaMa, PS 122, New York Live Arts, the Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, PS 1, Walker Art Center. Commissions include BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Lincoln Center, MASS MoCA. ‘JOHN KELLY, a Visual Autobiography', was published by 2wice Arts Foundation in association with Aperture.

Voice

Kelly is described as a countertenor singer, whose vocal range extends from a male alto to a much lower baritone.

Style

According to Elisabeth Vincentelli, "If the protean Mr. Kelly has had one recurring theme through the years, it is the shaping of the self through art. In his new show at La MaMa, “Time No Line,” the subject is himself — but then, hasn’t it always been, even when refracted through the creations of others?"

Performance Works

He is a MacDowell Colony fellow.