About
Artist statement
I believe in the importance and power of colorful art to uplift and transform our state of mind. As tension and anxiety in our everyday lives increases, viewing vibrant art is a viable and important approach to reducing stress. I'm naturally drawn to vibrant hues, which have been proven to trigger a mood-elevating dopamine response in the brain when viewed.
Helen Frankenthaler and the Washington Color School art movement are major influences on my painting process. I apply thinned, transparent acrylic paint to raw canvas and sheer fabric, resulting in luminous painted layers of overlapping forms and repeating marks. More recently, I’ve added stitching to create line and have been manipulating two dimensional materials into suspended three dimensional forms. These create expanded space and movement, into which the viewer can enter. As I continuously experiment with and manipulate materials, I develop new processes to for artmaking.
Resume/CV
Solo exhibitions:
National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, West Gallery
Kelly Irvine, January 7 – April 7, 2024
Curator: Lillian Fitzgerald
Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC
Spotlight: Kelly Irvine, July 6 - 16, 2023
Curator: Abbey Allison McClain
Selected group exhibitions:
2026 Eye Spy, Towson University Holtzman Gallery
2026 Phantasms, Maryland Art Place (Curators: Caitlin Gill, Catherine Khamnouane, Kelly Irvine, et al)
2026 Shape of Growth, Hamilton Gallery, Baltimore, MD (Curator: Heather Liverman)
2025 Fervor, Hamilton Gallery, Baltimore, MD. (Curators: Grace Doyle and Zachary Diaz)
2025 Radius 2025, The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE, (Curator: Leah Triplett)
2025 What’s Left Behind, Gallery 410, Baltimore MD (Curator: Lauren Genovese)
2025 Shifting Perspectives, Hamilton Gallery, Baltimore MD
2024 Under 2500, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore MD
2024 Mid-Atlantic New Painting Biennial, University of Mary Washington
Ridderhof Martin Gallery, Fredericksburg, VA
(Juror: Heather Hakimzadeh, Senior Curator and Special Projects
Manager at Virginia MOCA)
2024 Iteration/Reiteration, Touchstone Gallery, Washington, DC
(Jurors: Addoley Dzegede, Christopher Kardambikis,
Roya Amirsoleymani)
2024 The Big Show, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD
2024 Wise and Well Instructor Showcase, Keswick Wise and Well Center,
Baltimore, MD
2023 Symphony of Colors, Martha Spak Gallery, Washington, DC
(Juror: Lesley Duncan, owner, Bellus Fine Art gallery)
2023 National Juried Exhibition, Delaplaine Arts Center, Frederick, MD
(Juror: Foon Sham, sculptor and Professor of Art at University of
Maryland College Park)
2023 Out of Order, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
2023 Visionary Women [invitational juried exhibition], Columbia Art Center,
Columbia, MD (Juror: Antonia Ramis Miguel)
2022 Friends of Yellow Barn Juried Exhibition, Yellow Barn Gallery,
Glen Echo, MD (Juror: Ingrid Christensen)
2022 Annual Labor Day Art Show, Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, MD
(Juror: Zoma Wallace)
2021 The Big Show, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD
2020 Friends of Yellow Barn Juried Exhibition, Yellow Barn Gallery, Glen Echo, MD
Honorable Mention
(Juror: Harry Cooper, Head Curator of Modern and
Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)
Recognition
2026 Windgate Fellow, Arrowmont School of Art and Craft
2023 Maryland State Arts Council Grants for Artists recipient
2020 Honorable Mention, Friends of Yellow Barn Juried Exhibition,
Glen Echo, MD (Juror: Harry Cooper, Head Curator of Modern and
Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)
Education
2025 - present MFA in Studio Art, Towson University, Towson, Maryland
1988 BS in Advertising Design (graphic design), University of Maryland, College Park, MD