Mary Kelly was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, US, in 1941 and lives today in Los Angeles. She has played a fundamental role in the history and ongoing development of conceptual and feminist art, with works that have explored sexuality and women’s experience, wider issues of identity, the spectacle and trauma of war, and the nature of memory in relation to history and geopolitics.
Installation view of Mary Kelly's We don't want to set the world on fire at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, 2025 Courtesy the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London. Photo: Mark Blower
Informed by a range of thought, including critical theory, psychoanalysis and literature, her work takes diverse physical forms, but often manifests in multimedia installations, involving a rich materiality that includes text and documents, photography and printmaking, sculpture, sound and film.
Installation view of Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document: Documentation III Analysed Markings and Diary-perspective Schema (1975) at Generali Foundation, Vienna Courtesy of the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London
She reflects on her groundbreaking projects like Post-Partum Document (1973-77) and Interim (1984-89), and the way that her use of autobiography has shifted in her work over time. She discusses the dramatic shift in her life following her move to Beirut in the 1960s and the events of May 1968. She recalls the moment she encountered Franz Kline’s work aged 15 and how it confirmed a lifelong pursuit of non-figurative work.
Mary Kelly's Interim Part 1: Corpus Menacé (1 of 5 sections) (1984-85) Courtesy of the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London
She reflects on her role within Conceptualism and her esteem for her peers in that movement. She discusses the importance of writers as diverse as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Genet, William Carlos Williams and Jacques Lacan. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including a moving answer to the ultimate question: what is art for?
- Mary Kelly: We don’t want to set the world on fire, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, until 17 January 2026
This podcast is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the arts and culture platform. Bloomberg Connects offers access to a vast range of international cultural organisations through a single click, with new guides being added regularly. They include a number of museums across the world that have had major presentations of Mary Kelly’s work, from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York to Tate Britain and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and Fruitmarket in Edinburgh. In the Fruitmarket guide, you can find in-depth features on the exhibition Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Wilding, the first posthumous exhibition in a public gallery or museum of the work of the Native American artist, activist, educator and curator, which continues until 1 February 2026. The guide has an audio guide to the exhibition, as well as features on six major works in the show, in which the artist’s son Neal Ambrose-Smith explores Indigenous culture and making, and the distinctive voice that Jaune Quick-to-See Smith brought to her subject matter and materials.
