Endlessly Unending

SNAP is pleased to present Endlessly Unending, featuring new work by Neah Kelly. The exhibition runs from October 21 – November 18, 2023 at SNAP Gallery.

Endlessly Unending is an exhibition that includes interactive artist books, an installation of paper sculptures, and a large-scale wall work that will combine to create an atypical playspace forming around an invented game. This show seeks to tempt the viewer into interaction using techniques such as connect-the-abstract-dots, paying attention, and handling objects, in the hopes that viewers will find their own piece to play with and become a part of the game.

Artist Talk: 6pm-7pm, October 21, prior to Opening Reception

Opening Reception: Saturday October 21, 7pm-9pm

Artist Statement:

Endlessly Unending is an exhibition that includes two interactive artist books, paper sculptures made from recycled prints, and a large-scale wall work. These elements will be used to create a responsive and intuitive, site-specific, unit-based installation. All these pieces are derived from the same three abstract shapes (that continue to serve as the inspiration and beginning point of the invented game I’m working with – a game of creating endless iterations from limited means). These diverse elements will come together to form a show that will create a game/puzzle dynamic where the viewer is called on to privately form a narrative, game or theory that explains the pieces. In this way the viewer is played with as well as called on to join in the play. It is a conceptual game, one where the pieces become visual puzzles that can be solved publicly (through interaction) or privately (through dwell time). It is not a playground in the traditional sense. It is a form of imaginative play that seeks to impress upon the viewer the importance, necessity and pervasiveness of play, even in unlikely play situations. Through this methodology it becomes clear that this play is therefore conceptual and contextual, meaning everything everywhere can be a form of play.

In this exhibition the two artist books can be used to find and create your own abstract shapes that then can be played with, developed through the individual’s own ideas and initiatives. The rest of the exhibition will present what sorts of ideas and solutions for creative inventions I’ve come up with (so far) for using these shapes. The series of shapes that I’m currently working with were found using this same method – finding shapes from cutout overlays in my own play device (one of the artist books).

Artist bio:

Neah Kelly is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cumberland on Vancouver Island, whose practice incorporates printmaking, drawing, then recycling these prints into hand-sewn paper sculptures, installation, and bookbinding. Broadly, her work is concerned with the circuitous nature of creativity, and how endless iterations can be found and generated, explored and capitalised on through the use of constraints, rules, and an obsessive tenacity. She has exhibited widely across the U.S. and Canada, participating in group shows at Women Made Gallery (Chicago), Site: Brooklyn (New York), and IPCNY (New York). Recent activities include a solo show at Centre[3] (Hamilton, ON) and two-person shows at Atelier Circulaire (Montreal, QC) and Martha Street Studio (Winnipeg, MB). She holds a BFA in Studio Art and Print Media from Concordia University (2014) and an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University (2018).