Kelly Robert
Kelly Robert was born in Southern California in 1976. She lives and works in Massa-Carrara Italy.
Robert has used periods of transition and growth as important sources of inspiration for her sculpture. Her figures, rooted yet boundless in their energy, both solid and multifaceted, demonstrate her early interest in, and unique departures from, the cubist and futurist artists of the early 20th Century. Robert enters the contemporary conversation by “replacing the ideal with the essential” and speaks to the body and mind’s complex relationship to transition within a world that demands we adapt to change at a relentless pace.
Robert sculpts all of her clay figures by hand using a coil method and smooths the surfaces to a stone-like finish. She paints the work, carefully choosing a color that speaks to the intended energy of the pose. Combining elements of balance, motion, and color to manifest energy, she has described her compositions as representing “moments of intense illumination and reckoning as physical gestures.”
Robert received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001. Subsequently, in 2020, she obtained her Master of Fine Arts Degree from The New York Academy of Art where she was awarded several merit-based scholarships and sculpture residencies. Her sculptures are held in esteemed private collections across Europe and the United States.
*Video
UPLIFT
Kelly Robert - Forza e Coraggio
