Local artists, and father and son duo, Kevin T. and Jack Kelly are performing live art in Concourse B at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). Two postmodern pop murals will be complete Wednesday, December 21, for all CVG travelers to enjoy thanks to a partnership between CVG and BLDG. The murals represent love and harmony, and are aviation themed.
Kevin T. Kelly was born in 1960, graduated from Art Academy of Cincinnati and moved to New York City in 1988, where he worked as a studio assistant for Pop Artist Tom Wesselmann for six years. Jack Kelly graduated from Columbus College of Art and Design, lives in Cincinnati and is a freelance commercial artist. Full bios below.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase true performance artists and their pop art to our passengers,” said Candace McGraw, chief executive officer, CVG. “We’re excited for this partnership and to see the end result that will adorn our Customs area in Concourse B to welcome guests to the region.”
Both live-paint session artists are working in conjunction with BLDG, a creative firm based in Covington, Kentucky.
About BLDG
Creative Kentuckians who contemplate what’s possible in the world of branding, design and curation. BLDG is an experience: our Kentucky locale, connection with the urban contemporary art world, and branding prowess work together to create inspirational, visionary and uncommon design solutions for clients. Transformation is inevitable, ordinary is unacceptable. Let’s create.
Kevin T. KellyBLDG specializes in branding and operates with eleven employees: including two partners (Jay Becker and Lesley Amann) and a team of designers, strategists and project managers.
Kelly’s work is decidedly “Neo-Pop” or “Post-Pop”. Infused with a postmodern sensibility, contemporaneous subject matter, and executed in what the artist refers to as a “hyper-chromatic” palette, the paintings are not only redolent of contemporary issues and politics, but excel as studies in formal definition, composition and color. Allowing for open-ended lines of query and interpretation without the burdensome weight of didactic pretense, Kelly chooses to establish a dialogue with the viewer vis-à-vis the painted image rather than wag his finger sanctimoniously from an ivory tower like so much “Activist Art” does today.
The work has been described as: “Roy Lichtenstein meets Dennis Hopper on Steroids.” It’s a wry, complex admixture of sardonic social commentary, the six o’clock news and the Sunday funnies.
He currently lives and works in the Greater Cincinnati area. His paintings have appeared on the cover of New American Paintings in 2000 and 2003. His work is featured in numerous public and private collections both in the United States and abroad, including Breitling S.A., The Kinsey Institute and Procter and Gamble. In addition to having taught as an adjunct professor at The Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Baker-Hunt Foundation in Covington, he has also written critical reviews for Cincinnati CityBeat, Dialogue magazine, New Art Examiner and AEQAI.
Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly, born in New York City in 1993, recently graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design with his B.F.A in Illustration and a minor in Fine Art. He has moved back to the Greater Cincinnati area where he has been working as a freelance commercial artist.
Jack’s work bridges the gap between many diverse media ranging from motion graphics, to pattern and textile design, to illustrative graphic posters and apparel design. His visual style incorporates the fundamental skills of draftsmanship, strong composition and graphic reduction with an emphasis on utilizing limited palettes. His working methodology has developed from his interest in commercial illustration and traditional printmaking techniques such as silkscreen and intaglio.