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Kelly Mark

Image of I Really Should, Kelly Mark

Kelly Mark, REM, 2007. 4-channel digital video installation (136:33 minutes) and furnishings, 640 x 244 cm. Installation view in 2019─20, permanent collection.
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, January 2020 © Kelly Mark
Photo: NGC

NAC happily counts Kelly Mark as one of our own. She’s from the Rose City and we’ve presented her whipsmart work twice over the years, in a two-person exhibit called lol in 2010 and as part of our literary and visual art mash-up curated by Eric Schmaltz The Bird is the Word in 2011.

The National Gallery is casting light on Kelly’s work in relation to the pandemic and isolation. You can check that bit here.

Kelly’s I Really Should project is mentioned in the profile. There are a couple of iterations of this. One is the audio piece that’s discussed, the other is a fridge with all the ‘Really shoulds’ written on it with a sharpie. We hear the Winnipeg Art Gallery has one in their permanent collection and NAC has one too. Uh, in our basement. We keep beer and wine and ketchup in it, a holdover from lol. The little catalogue we published for that show can be found here.

lol catalogue spread

Kelly’s incredible letraset work that’s discussed has an interesting Niagara provenance too. The once popular rub on transfer text that predated desktop publishing is still around but it’s hard to find and it’s spendy. When Commercial Photocopy on Geneva Street went out of business, I snatched up their entire letraset stock, including the custom-made shelving they stored it in. I’ve shipped whacks of it up to Kelly by the pound in exchange for art. A very good deal.

take care
overnout

S.

Stephen Remus
Minister of Energy, Minds, and Resources