About the artist

I was raised on the east end of Long Island in East Hampton, NY. I studied painting and sculpture at Cornell University and my work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions - most recently at Colm Rowan Fine Art in East Hampton and the amArtHouse gallery in Bantam, CT, as well as The Lucore Art in Montauk, the Mark Borghi gallery in Sag Harbor, and Gallery RIVAA in New York City. In addition, I have been represented in major art fairs in the United States, ranging from the Hamptons Fine Art Fair in Southampton to prestigious shows in San Francisco, Palm Beach, Manhattan, and Boston. I have also received corporate commissions from such places as Richemont North America in NYC, the Grey Matters design group in Singapore, and my paintings and sculptures are in many corporate spaces and private collections.

I have also worked extensively with interior design firms including artworks at The Dream Hotel in New York City to onsite murals in Harbour Island, Bahamas. After living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for many years, I am now back in East Hampton where I live and create artwork full time.

Chris Kelly is represented by Colm Rowan Fine Art in East Hampton, NY

and amArtHouse in Bantam, CT.

Artistic statement

The Deconstructed Golden Ratio

"Deconstruction" is a term that shows up in various places related to the arts, such as in literary criticism or in architecture ("Deconstructivism"), but I believe that all art is about deconstructing something and then rebuilding it. We observe, analyze, take apart, reimagine, and then use those various parts as building blocks for a new work of art. Such is my process, and for this series of artworks I am deconstructing the hidden geometry of nature and exploring how it connects humanity to the natural world. Specifically: the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci sequence, and fractals (though not the same, they are closely related).

This geometry can be seen in wildly different aspects of nature - from the curve of seashells, to hurricanes, and all the way to the shapes of galaxies. But the same mathematics apply to fields of study in the human realm, too - music, psychology, chemistry, biology, and many more... this geometry is integral to who we are, all of us, and how we understand the functioning of the world. It speaks to something elemental and primal that is undeniable once you know how to look for it and how to find it.

It has also been used in art for millennia - the Old Masters used it to organize their subject matter, such as the placement of a horizon line or a vertical shape. When I begin, I start with a grid based on the Golden Ratio. Then as I build the artwork I always think of it as a puzzle to be solved. I choose to have the mathematical relationships in some areas, but I often shift them so that shapes slide over and into each other - this creates a drama that has both tension and resolve, and the brushwork creates a vibrational energy that complements the solid structures of the paintings. Math is as much a medium as my oil paints.

In my life, I always like to seek out and discover the way things are connected. These artworks are about the connection of our inner selves to something greater beyond ourselves, and they are reminders of the wild beauty that is all around us. We are a part of nature, and the mathematics that exist just behind the scenes are proof of this. As "Interiors" they are a refuge from the outside world - if the chaotic world outside is the storm, then I think of each artwork as the eye of the storm. But we're not just looking at it, we're looking into it, through it, and finding safe passage.