“Mary Kelly: To Witness the Future”

Black and white picture featuring a group of women in the city at night, with lightboxes on top of their breast and vaginas — Image Credit: Flashing Nipple Remix, 2005 (detail). Black and white transparencies in light boxes with 3 panels. © Mary Kelly. Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.

Pioneering and influential feminist artist Mary Kelly (American b. 1941, lives Los Angeles, CA) is best known for her 1970s conceptual art installations. “Mary Kelly: To Witness The Future” is the first exhibition to specifically explore her long engagement with activist movements. The works all reference women’s responses to key political issues in the United States and Europe starting in the 1960s and 1970s; these issues have taken on new resonance in light of current political shifts, which may influence the course of our future. The exhibit will be open in the de la Cruz Art Gallery from September 23 to December 11, 2022. On view are works made from 2005 to the present, including lint “paintings,” light box photographs, video art, and a live “happening.” This exhibition is curated by Al Miner and supported by Helaine Posner (C ’75).