Renowned artist, Mary Kelly presents her latest body of work, Unlimited, at Claremorris Gallery, offering an introspective journey where chairs serve as metaphors for human experience. The show comprises ten new paintings by the artist. This exhibition is deeply rooted in Kelly’s years of exploration in psychotherapy, lens-based work, and a return to painting.

The inspiration for Unlimited stems from the artist’s participation in a group psychotherapy process. Reflecting on that experience, she explains, “The simplicity of the room and the depth of experience explored in that space changed eventually into the chair as an entity / metaphor of sitting with yourself and witnessing life” The artist continues, “The intimate space of the psychotherapeutic experience opens out into life itself.”

In Unlimited, Kelly explores the relationship between image and title, and how the gap between them becomes a limitless space for contemplation. “Between the painting and the title there is an unlimited gap beyond the image itself,” says Kelly]. “The chairs are the holding blocks for the passage of people, time, self and life. I hope there is space for everything and anything in those spaces.”

Before Mary Kelly’s return to painting in 2016, she was known for her lens-based projects that captured the traces people leave behind as part of their survival and existence. Projects such as The Landing (2003), which documented the marks men made on their cells at Portlaoise Prison, and Asylum (2005), which explored the remnants left by patients in St Mary’s Asylum, Castlebar, reveal Kelly’s fascination with the marks of human presence. Other notable works include Father & Child (2009), which examined fathers’ tattoos of their children’s names, and I Believe, Help My Unbelief (2010), a study of baby grave arrangements at Glasnevin’s Angels Plot.

Having shifted from photography to painting, Kelly now leaves their own mark on the canvas, engaging viewers in a dialogue about life, memory, and experience.

Mary A. Kelly is a contemporary Irish artist based in Greystones, County Wicklow. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally in cities such as New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Helsinki, and Brussels. Throughout her career, Mary has received numerous prestigious awards for her contributions to the arts. Her recent accolades include the Friends of the RHA Award (2023), the Royal College of Surgeons Award (2019), the Irish American Arts Award in New York (2006), and the Markievicz Gold Medal for best emerging sculpture. She was also named Student of the Year at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design, and Technology upon graduation. Mary holds degrees in Psychology, Philosophy, Fine Art, and Film. She has worked across a variety of media, including painting, photography, video, sound, installation, film, and drawing. Her work has been commissioned by notable institutions such as the O.P.W., Microsoft, the College of Surgeons, and Leinster House.