John Kelly
Biography
John Kelly is a performance and visual artist. He is also, depending on–the climate, the opportunity, or his mood–a choreographer, actor, singer, dancer, director, writer, and video artist. Performance works range from solo to group, from autobiography to history—generally as seen through the eyes of a specific character. His ‘Pass The Blutwurst, Bitte’ (based on the Viennese Expressionist artist Egon Schiele) was recently revived at La MaMa. He recently premiered ‘The Escape Artist’, a solo work (comprised of original songs and a 3-channel video component) at Performance Space 122; future plans include making this work into a film, and recording the songs. Other performance venues include The Kitchen, PS 1, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, The Tate Modern, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Visual Art exhibitions include MOMA, Alexander Gray Associates (NYC), the MIT List Visual Art Center (Cambridge), and the Institute for Contemporary Art (Philadelphia). An autobiography ‘JOHN KELLY’, was published by the 2wice Arts Foundation, in association with Aperture. Acting credits include the Broadway production of ‘James Joyce’s The Dead’ (Bartell Darcy); ‘Dido, Queen of Carthage ‘ at American Repertory Theatre (Cupid; Eliot Norton Best Actor Award); ‘Orpheus X’ also at A.R.T. and TFANA (Jon/Persephone); John Cage’s ‘Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Eric Satie: An Alphabet’ (Narrator); ‘The Clerk’s Tale’ (Spencer Reese) a film directed by James Franco. He has performed in works by Martha Clarke, David Gordon, and Christopher Williams. Choreographic credits include ‘Arjuna’s Dilemma’ (Brooklyn Academy of Music); ‘Mrs. Hamlet’ (2004) and ‘Cohesion’ (2010), both commissions from the McKnight Foundation’s ‘SOLO’ series.
