Jean-Paul Kelly (b. London, Ontario) makes videos and exhibitions that pose questions about the limits of representation by examining complex associations in the production, reception, and circulation of documentary material. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at VOX Centre de l’image contemporaine (Montréal), Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), Delfina Foundation (London), Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, Ohio), Scrap Metal Gallery (Toronto) and Gallery TPW (Toronto). Kelly’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe), Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides (Saint-Jérôme, Québec), Southwark Park Galleries (London), Oakville Galleries, Mercer Union (Toronto) and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto). He has held artist residencies at the Delfina Foundation (London) and the International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York) and was a guest artist at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and the Brakhage Center Symposium.
For GTA24, Jean-Paul Kelly will present a new installation titled How cruelty disgusts the view, while pity charms the site, that features six line drawings in graphite that are inspired by 18th century English artist and social critic William Hogarth’s modern moral prints, The Four Stages of Cruelty. The exhibition will also include B.A.A.D.C. (Bonjour aux amis de calamité) (2016), a wall-based sculpture that makes reference to writer and political activist Jean Genet’s sensual short film from 1950, Un chant d’amour (A Song of Love).
