Mary Reid Kelley

A prostitute, a First World War soldier, a minotaur, a 19th-century French grisette. These are just a few of the characters in the work of Mary Reid Kelley (°1979, Greenville, South Carolina). She plays these historical figures in her videos, and uses costumes, masks and poetic wordplay to create black and white films that are strongly reminiscent of the graphic novel. She observes gender, desire and vanity, and connects classical tragedies with pop culture and contemporary literature.

For her first Belgian solo exhibition, Kelley is presenting her video trilogy about the myth of the minotaur ("Priapus Agonistes” (2013), “Swinburne’s Pasiphae” (2014) and “The Thong of Dionysus” (2015)) along with “The Syphilis of Sisyphus” (2011) and drawings.

This exhibition will coincide with Kunsthalle Bremen

Curator: Valerie Verhack