UNDER THE SKIN presents sculptures by Paul Kelley and photographs by Ursula Maier interpreting Kelley’s work. Paul Kelley’s cubes are a playful examination of materiality and volume. 700+ cubes of copper, plaster, cement, wood, aluminum, and lead are arranged into strong architectural forms that delineate the surrounding spaces. Influenced by Donald Judd and Carl Andre, shape and surface are central to his work.

 

Ursula Maier’s photographs of Kelley’s sculptures focus on the appeal of art in space. She creates images in which an object’s shape and materiality dissipates into a new abstraction. The images show reverse relation of space and materiality intensified by the large-scale format. Her vivid photographs dissolving the strong geometric shapes provide fresh insight to the work, illuminating the poetry of surface and form in repetition.

 

Paul Kelley is a London based artist and designer. He is the recipient of numerous international design awards including: The Wallpaper Design Award, Design Guild Mark, the Jonathon Hindle prize for excellence in design and manufacturing and two German Design Council Awards. His projects include: The Paul Smith flagship store in LA, Venice Biennale for Architecture 2016 organized by the European Cultural Centre, Thomas Mann House, Munich, Libby Sellers Gallery, Art Basel 2012, Venice Biennale for Art 2017, And various projects with Thomas Erber in London and Paris.

 

In 2017, Ursula Maier began documenting Paul Kelley’s exhibition at the 57. Venice Biennale of Architecture. Since then, the two artists have been working together on various shows and projects. The main focus of Ursula Maier’s work is architecture as well as the motif of art in space. She continues to develop her own characteristic language to document and portray art through photography. Ursula Maier lives and works as a professional photographer in Ellwangen (Jagst), Germany.