Rylie Kelley
“I see myself in the scallops and coquinas and the shifting holes of sand fleas,” 9” x 12" , Copper plate intaglio and aquatint
Rylie Kelley’s studio practice is deeply interdisciplinary, drawing from environmental humanities, queer inhumanisms (Luciano, Dana and Mel Y. Chen. "Queer Inhumanisms." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, vol. 25 no. 1, 2019), feminist theory, and queer/trans theory. They explore these discourses through research-driven prints that explore queer kinship with the more-than-human world in the face of the Anthropocene. Kelley’s current body of work explores these relationalities within the context of coastal ecosystems, figuring beaches and shorelines as ever-shifting liminal spaces that exist between binaries of land and sea and sky. In this way, the coast becomes a home for queer and trans people, who are defined by their existence in spaces that linger in the in-between. By creating connections between queer and trans people, shifting landscapes, and the organisms that have evolved to thrive in liminal border ecologies, Kelley simultaneously asserts that queer and trans people are a part of nature, and that we must posit ourselves as allies, co-conspirators, companions, and kin with the more-than-human world in order to survive the linked systems of environmental and social persecution that define the Anthropocene.
Rylie Kelley
Rylie Kelley is an emerging artist and printmaker living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born in eastern Iowa, Kelley makes geographically grounded work about conservation, ecology, queerness, archives, and activism. They earned their B.F.A. in Printmaking and B.A. in Psychology from the University of Iowa in 2024 and are currently an M.F.A. candidate in Printmaking at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. Kelley has exhibited their work in two solo shows in Iowa City, Iowa, in addition to several group exhibitions spanning across Iowa City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Providence, and San Juan.