TJ Kelley III (b.1990) is an artist from Boston, Massachusetts.
Working through a variety of visual media, he intends to explore social histories within storytelling using objects, patterns, and writing to examine the way our personal narratives distort the stories we hear and tell. Recalling early lithograph printed poster design and commercial iconography, he utilizes a bright but limited palette to render images of objects, assembling them together in provocative formations to engage the viewer’s own visual history to inform a story within the work. While his paintings and drawings remain the primary focus, in recent years he has begun a more immersive art practice by incorporating sculpture, bookmaking, and installation to create a unified expression across media and presentation.
“I am interested in shining my light on forms and images that communicate a myriad of meanings that often go unnoticed by their recipients. Waves, tools, icons, fruits, characters and other constants are conveyed to prepared surfaces through the meditative labor of painting and arranged into charged compositions that engage in a visual dialogue with each other and with the viewer. They operate as important documents of our cultural and counter-cultural history and as love letters to forgettable objects and images we encounter daily and unknowingly cherish.”
