Press Release - "Light In Hand" by Kelly Ording
Kelly Ording
”Everything is Everything”
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 144 inches
Framed
2022
info@part2gallery.com
pt.2 Gallery
“Light In Hand”
by
Kelly Ording
Opening Reception
Saturday, June 11th, 6-9 pm
Showing Through July 1st, 2022
pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to present Light In Hand, a solo exhibition of new works by Kelly Ording. In Ording’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, she hones her experimentations as way to highlight the emotive qualities of color. Delicate shapes, dyed paper and repeated forms intersect across myriad relationships in Light in hand, united by uplifting and calming tones that permeate tenderness and joy.
The human experience of recording time is not mechanical - as interpreted by Ording time is unconfined and personal. According to the circumstances of our surroundings and of our temperament it passes differently. The focused, repetitive forms central to Ording’s oeuvre each have a unique beginning and end. Along the way way, they subtly vibrate with the waves and permutations of the artist’s deliberate and gentle touch, each mark unique in its own way. Many of the foundational forms long repeated in Ording’s work are sorts of open loops - rounded forms that portray the passage of time as fluid and ever changing.
Kelly Ording
”This Is The Place”
Acrylic on dyed paper
26 x 26 inches
Rounded white face maple sides frame
Museum glass
2022
info@part2gallery.com
These open loops allude to emotional journeys. Sensuous, convex and rounded forms mark the passage of joy and delight, as well as moments of longing and reflection. The new works in Light in Hand speak predominately towards the former, they exude lightness and tenderness in soothing hues of cyan, goldenrod and mauve. These effusive tones radiate on Ording’s signature dyed paper, which acts as a prominent anchor to the colored forms. As the backgrounds, speckled white and rich in warm stained hues, provide sanctuary and guidance for Ording’s painting the line between foreground and background begins to blur. Instead, the two exist in harmony - image and support all at once.
As a title, Light in Hand speaks to this shared agency. From one perspective, Light in Hand refers to the deference with which Ording approaches her painting, each brushstroke deliberate yet gentle. In chorus with Ording’s own participation in the act of creation is the lightness of the roles that that color play, as both a formal element and a source of emotional bounty. The colors that intermingle in Light in Hand invoke the delicacy of joy, tenderness and love.
Kelly Ording
”Everything is the Ocean with Us”
Acrylic on dyed paper
31.5 x 57 inches
Rounded bleached walnut frame
Museum glass
2022
info@part2gallery.com
Based in Oakland, California, Kelly Ording has exhibited her work both in the U.S. and Internationally since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000. Her work is included in several collections; such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art collection, the San Francisco Arts Commission Public and Civic Art Collection, the Alameda County Collection, JP Morgan Chase Collection, Ellie Mae Collection, and Microsoft Collection to name a few. Ording is represented by pt. 2 Gallery, Oakland CA. She has also recently exhibited work with Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco CA, Gilman Contemporary, Sun Valley ID and Stephanie Chefas Projects, Portland OR.
In addition to her works on paper, canvas and collages, Ording has created several large scale public works and murals. Her public works and murals can be seen in San Francisco’s landmark Clarion Alley, the Palega Park Recreation Center in San Francisco, Genentech, the Emeryville Center for Community Life, as well as other locations throughout the Bay Area and Internationally. She has completed residencies at the Facebook Analog Research Laboratory, Menlo Park and Kala Art Institute, Berkeley. She was the recipient of the 2020 Kala Art Institute Master Artists Award. Ording currently devotes all her time to her artwork and her family with fellow artist, Jet Martinez.