Sculpture Show Highlights Mo Kelman - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Sculpture Show Highlights Mo Kelman - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

Mo Kelman is a Providence-based artist with a remarkable pedigree. Exhibiting regularly for over forty years, she has shared her work in more than 100 shows. Currently, Rhode Islanders can see Kelman’s recent sculptures in a solo exhibition at the Chazan Gallery at Wheeler School on the East Side of Providence. Through December 17, she is sharing a collection of pieces that exemplify her keen intellect and elevated sense for composition and construction.

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Originally from Ohio, Kelman earned her undergraduate degree at Monmouth College in Illinois and her MFA from UMass Dartmouth. From 1981 to 2017 she was a Professor in the Art Department at Community College of Rhode Island. A respected maker, she has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, among other awards. Previous shows have seen her work highlighted locally at venues like Boston Sculptors Gallery and Fuller Craft Museum as well as farther afield in New York, California, Hawaii, Canada, London, Korea, and Japan.

 

 

Kelman’s exhibition at Wheeler is titled Water Ways. It takes as its theme various iterations of water and reveals tensions between the ebb and flow of liquid surfaces and the solidity of built forms. In some pieces, fiber is used to mimic watery planes while in others bent wood serves the same purpose. Grids of slender pieces of wood evoke submerged towers. Wall-mounted works are installed with taught strings, enhancing the drama involved in the work the artist has created. Kelman’s art makes the viewer carefully consider the forces of nature and humanity.

 

 

Asked about her use of watery motifs in her work, Kelman says, “In this sculpture series I’ve merged abstracted images of water in its various forms—as rivers, lakes, clouds and ice — with industrial and architectural structures. These days we talk about water all the time. There’s too much rain, not enough rain, atmospheric rivers, coastal floods, river floods, melting glaciers. I see water as the ideal subject to reflect on the laws that govern nature as it ceaselessly advances and embarrasses our every effort to keep it at bay. The natural world is forever transforming and adaptable. My artwork contemplates and celebrates nature’s relentless power, and compares it with a built world that inevitably gives way.”

 

 

Kelman was brought up among family members who were in the building profession and spent time on many construction sites. This might explain why her understanding of structures seems so very innate. She has an easy way with building complex things. Craft is also central to her process and she has taught workshops at some of the nation’s most important craft venues including the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Maine. She is a uniquely gifted maker with a great sense for materials. Her exhibition is a stunning display of contemporary sculpture.

 

Asked about her feelings about exhibiting in the Chazan Gallery at Wheeler School, Kelman gushes, saying, “The Chazan Gallery acts as a two-way street between Rhode Island’s art community and the students of Wheeler School, who emerge with a high level of arts literacy and studio skills. It has been delightful to have students pop into the gallery throughout the day, asking brilliant questions about my work. Artists in the area know that the Chazan Gallery manages to be both intimate and spacious, beautifully lit, and designed to highlight artwork within its spare, neutral space.”

 

 

The gallery does show off Kelman’s work at its best. The warmth of the materials she uses balances with the tightly choreographed contemporaneity of her artworks. Viewers can spend a great deal of time with this collection of artworks as extended time unveils new depths and details. It is enticing to look at, in, and through these forms and to appreciate their unique play of shadows.

 

Kelman sees her current work as a jumping-off point for further exploration. Looking forward, she says, “I’m not done with water! There’s much more to explore. I grew up in the industrial landscape of Cleveland and my father was a builder. So I’ve always been drawn to skeletal ways of thinking. At the same time, I’m a nature lover and my artwork has always poked at harmonies or conflicts between these worlds, especially in this age of climate change. I’ll simply keep at it!”

 

 

Showing off an artist with rich experience who continues to make powerful and striking work, Kelman’s exhibition features a body of multilayered sculptural pieces that viewers should see.

 

Mo Kelman’s solo exhibition Water Ways is on view in the Chazan Gallery at Wheeler School through December 17. Gallery hours are Monday - Friday from 3-6 pm, Saturday from 10 am - 4 pm, and by appointment. Learn more about Mo Kelman at www.mokelman.com.