AVAILABLE NOW: MARY REID KELLY & PATRICK KELLEY Published by The Fabric Workshop and Museum and Gregory R. Miller & Co. Edited by Karen Patterson

Visual Arts
AVAILABLE NOW: MARY REID KELLY & PATRICK KELLEY
Published by The Fabric Workshop and Museum and Gregory R. Miller & Co.
Edited by Karen Patterson
Philadelphia, PA, May 17, 2022 — The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to announce its newest publication, Mary Reid Kelly & Patrick Kelley, available online and in the Museum Shop. Published as part of the artists’ recent exhibition at FWM, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley: Blood Moon, the catalogue includes a retrospective of their work beginning with their first collaboration in 2008 through Blood Moon (2021). Featured are essays, interviews, a compilation of their film scripts, and never-before-seen process imagery.

Christina Vassallo, Executive Director of The Fabric Workshop and Museum, said, “We are so thrilled to be sharing the first monograph of the complete works to date of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, artists who have uniquely pushed the boundaries of video, performance, and contemporary interpretation of art and literary history. The publication of this book is a fitting conclusion to a fruitful collaboration and a record of the artists’ creativity that will endure for many years to come.”

The catalogue was co-published by The Fabric Workshop and Museum and Gregory R. Miller & CO., edited by Karen Patterson, with contributions by Jackie Murray, Kathy Noble, Jenelle Porter, Robert Storr, Alec Unkovic, Christina Vassallo, and Catherine Wood. The book was designed by Purtill Family Business.

Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley are celebrated for their videography featuring a distinctive black-and-white palette with scripted narratives in rhyming verse, full of punning wordplay, by characters brought to life onscreen by Mary.

Contents and Contributors
The following contributions are accompanied by a wealth of images that reveal the artists’ process, including new behind-the-scenes photography that details the collaboration with the FWM studio:

  • In her forward, Christina Vassallo, Executive Director of The Fabric Workshop and Museum, reflects on how the COVID-19 pandemic required the artists and FWM to collaborate under unprecedented circumstances.
  • Curator and writer Jenelle Porter provides a comprehensive inventory of the artists’ oeuvre, documenting how their working process has evolved into its current form of co-authorship.
  • The artist, critic, curator, and educator Robert Storr traces important themes in the artists’ work from the early years of their career to the present day, focusing in particular on Mary’s scripts. Storr has served as the Dean of the Yale School of Art since 2006.
  • Jackie Murray focuses on the artists’ adaptation and use of techniques from ancient Greek theater. Murray is the Associate Professor of Classics in the Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.
  • Catherine Wood, Senior Curator of International Art (Performance) at the Tate Modern, examines the philosophical implications of their work, particularly as they manifest in Rand/Goop (2019) and This Is Offal (2016), the latter of which she commissioned for Tate Modern.
  • Kathy Noble, who served as a thinking partner for Blood Moon at FWM, considers the ways in which many of the characters in the artists’ films wrestle with pervasive violence. Noble serves as Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs at Performa, New York.
  • An interview with Mary Reid Kelly and Patrick Kelley conducted by Alec Unkovic, Interim Director of Exhibitions at FWM and co-curator of Blood Moon, focuses on how their early practice of rubbings shaped the exhibition.

Additionally, scripts and stills are provided for the artists’ oeuvre to date: Camel Toe (2008); The Queen’s English (2008); Sadie, the Saddest Sadist (2009); You Make Me Iliad (2010); The Syphilis of Sisyphus (2011); Priapus Agonistes (2013); Swinburne’s Pasiphae (2014); The Thong of Dionysus (2015); This is Offal (2016); In the Body of The Sturgeon (2017); Rand/Goop (2019); The Rape of Europa (2021); I’m Jackson Pollock (2021); and Blood Moon (2021).

This publication was edited by Karen Patterson, then Director of Exhibitions and Curator at FWM, and co-curator of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley: Blood Moon.

About the Artists
Mary Reid Kelley (American, b. 1979) received her BFA from St. Olaf College, Minnesota, and an MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2009. She is the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Grant, has received awards from the American Academy in Rome, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation, and the Guggenheim Fellowship.Patrick Kelley (American, b. 1969) earned a BFA from St. Olaf College, Minnesota, and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. His works have been exhibited at the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information–Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

Working collaboratively since 2008, the work of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, SITE Santa Fe, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. European solo exhibitions include Tate Liverpool, Kunsthalle Bremen, Museum M, Leuven, Studio Voltaire, and Neuer Kunstverein Wien. Their video work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, W Magazine, La Reppublica, Vogue, The New Yorker, Artforum, Flash Art, Frieze, ARTnews, and Art in America.

320 pages with 322 illustrations
Hardcover | 25 x 17.5 x 4 cm.
$45
ISBN: 978-1-7360146-2-2
Publication Date: May 24, 2022
Cover image: Mary Reid Kelley in costume on the set of The Rape of Europa, 2021
Back cover image: Mary Reid Kelley in costume on the set of Blood Moon, 2021

Support
Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley: Blood Moon and the accompanying publication is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. This project is also supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Major support of FWM is provided by the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. FWM receives state art funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support is provided by The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Agnes Gund, and the Board of Directors and Members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

About the Fabric Workshop and Museum
The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is an internationally acclaimed contemporary art museum devoted to the creation, presentation, and preservation of innovative works of art. Its mission—Collaborating with artists, revealing new possibilities—embodies a 45-year commitment to helping artists experiment with the expressive possibilities of a broad spectrum of new materials and techniques. Through its renowned Artist-in-Residence Program, FWM provides artists at all stages of their careers with the opportunity to collaborate with its studio staff and take their work in fresh and often unexpected directions. FWM presents large-scale exhibitions, installations, and performative work, utilizing innovative fiber and other media including sculpture, installation, video, painting, photography, ceramics, and architecture. Founded in 1977, FWM brings this spirit of creative investigation and discovery to an eager audience, broadening access to art and advancing its role as a catalyst for innovation and social connection.

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