Ceramics professor Ryan Kelly featured at Circa for November 4 ArtWalk

Bellingham's Circa Pottery hosts the work of Art & Art History's Ryan Kelly for the Friday, November 4 Art Walk. Find the alley entrance between Commercial and Cornwall.

“This body of work comes, in part, from my study of and appreciation for historic and contemporary kitsch ceramic objects, and vernacular art forms. Just as much it is informed by a childhood spent exploring the cramped, overstuffed homes of elderly relatives, filled with books, curios and artifacts from their long lives. You can see this in the over-sized, fever-dream recreations of my grand mother’s Doulton Hunting Jug, or her Martha Washington Toby Mug. I return to these domestic spaces in my dreams to interrogate these secret objects for their stories.”

Ryan W. Kelly is an Associate Professor of Ceramics and Foundations in Western Washington University’s Department of Art and Art History. He holds a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, and an MFA from The Ohio State University. Prior to coming to Bellingham, Ryan taught at a number of institutions including Tyler School of Art, The Maryland Institute College of Art, Rutgers University, and Swarthmore College. For many years Ryan lived and worked in Philadelphia, where he was a resident artist at The Clay Studio; a recipient of an Independence Foundation Fellowship, and a co-curator at Practice Gallery. His collaborations in dance and theater include credits in the Green Porno series by Isabella Rossellini.