Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelley Devine.
Kelley Devine is a Houston-based fine artist who works in a variety of media to explore issues of society and self. Devine received her bachelors in Art with an emphasis in sculpture at Southeastern Louisiana University. After graduation, she began to exhibit her works, which have now appeared at various venues across the US. Additionally, she co-founded several businesses including an industrial coatings company, a multiple city distribution lifestyle magazine, and a bottled water company. Kelley then went on to work for the Houston Arts Alliance, managing special projects, before becoming a full-time artist.
Devine describes herself as ‘a mother, artist, entrepreneur, and avid cyclist’ and says her art helps her communicate what she sees as the opposing forces within the human psyche. ‘As a painter and a sculptor, I strive to incorporate the concept of how self-perception and internalization differs from the perceptions and assumptions of others, by combining materials, applications or images that are visually and psychologically contrary to one another,’
Devine continues to actively show her work. She is a former member of the Sketchy Neighbors artist group and former participant in the John Palmers 2010 Escapists mentorship program. Highlights include the Red Bull Art of Can 2008, the Red Dot Art Fair 2009, and Additional Support group show for Spacetaker’s Inaugural gallery opening in 2010. Notable 2011 events include the Artist Project New York, Art Chicago and Houston Fine Art Fair. In 2012 her work was exhibited at the Los Angeles Art Fair and later at Houston Fashion Week. 2014 included two solo shows, Face Face at Esperson Gallery and Unwhole at Nicole Longnecker Gallery, and a group show of national juried artists selected by Redbull at SCOPE during Art Basel Miami. 2015 solo shows included Sight Insight at Esperson gallery, 2016 included a monumental public art sculpture and solo show at Jack Meier Gallery benefiting the Navy SEAL Foundation. 2017 included some traveling for juried shows in Corpus Christi, TX, Denver, CO and Ventura, CA.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I work in painting, drawing, mixed media and sculpture. Each on is different and has a different process but all of them are related to how I perceive current society, the individuals within it and how/where I fit among them.
Art is the language I use to speak with honesty to the world around me. It is a mental, emotional, physical and creative exercise in skill, design and construction. My challenge is to incorporate a part of my life and the related emotions in each piece I produce into an object that should be able to stand on its own for each viewer. My goal as an artist is to learn new skills, crafts, perfect my techniques and learn more about the art world and the artists it encompasses.
My work also reflects a constant striving to maintain a working balance within my life and to find ways to utilize the rolls of mother, wife, student and business owner in order to enhance one another. My art is indispensable in this manner. All of these roles add a different aspect to my work as I try to balance and prioritize each of them. “There is not a single true work of art that has not in the end added to the inner freedom of each person who has known and loved it.” -Albert Camus
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
No. The role of the artist is to reflect the events and the changes that we experience personally and as a whole. Art should make people think and feel. The economy (and perceptions around it) certainly affects sales. Everything else is creative fodder that when finished you get to see how other people react to it, give their own meaning to and then try interpret your perspective. That’s always interesting and sometimes very awkward.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
The best place to see any art is in person. If you really want to see the art then go see where it’s made, i.e. the artist’s studio. I recently relocated to Hardy & Nance Studios and am there full time and by appointment. Of course, there’s always www.kelleydevine.com.
Contact Info:
- Address: Hardy & Nance Studios, 702 Hardy Street, Houston, TX 77020
- Website: www.kelleydevine.com
- Phone: 7133026343
- Email: kelley@kelleydevine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelleydevineart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelley.devine
Image Credit:
Spot on PR and Mellisa Perez
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