KELLY BJÖRK
SWIMMING NAKED
OCTOBER 6 - NOVEMBER 5, 2022
OPENING RECEPTION - FIRST THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6 2022, 5-8PM
ARTIST MEET & GREET - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1-4PM
J. Rinehart Gallery is thrilled to announce our first solo exhibition with illustrator, painter, and muralist Kelly Björk. Their Exhibition, Swimming Naked is a collection of intimate vignettes illustrating moments of queer joy and self-expression/identity.
Swimming Naked shares the sensations of self-discovery and queer identity, all depicting quiet moments of emotional wellbeing. Narratives of intimate relationships reveal a world of tenderness within the realm of Kelly Björk’s Exhibition. Jump in, swim naked, the water is fine.
Kelly Björk grew up in Tacoma, Washington and graduated with a B.F.A. from Western Washington University in 2009. Their paintings have been featured in numerous publications, including: New American Paintings, McSweeney’s, No Man's Land, TheStranger, Anxy Magazine, and The Washington Post.
Kelly Bjork's work focuses on portraiture and intimacy between loved ones and objects. They show the tenderness that can be experienced in this world through selective simplicity and tiny details. With our current socio-political climate, it is important to recognize these often-unnoticed moments in our daily lives, and to remember that they exist. Bjork’s paintings help them move forward openly, by presenting what is good in our world.
In 2018, they received the Helen Frankenthaler Fellowship for the Vermont Studio Center. Kelly’s work has exhibited from Seattle to New York to France and in between.
In conjunction with Swimming Naked, an exhibition catalog will be published with an essay written by arts writer and editor, Lauren Gallow.
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Swimming naked is a form of communication, a show of vulnerability, an act of liberation.
It's a nurturing; a giving of the self to each other and the water.
Like swimming naked, we've been drenched in this larger collective experience that strangely buoys us up into a greater intimacy with those we love.