Robert Kelly
Without Words
April 7th to May 25th 2026
Without Words is a body of work which starts out to memorialise wooden letterpress
movable typeface developed in the 19th century. This process has of course its
origins in the development of metal movable typeface of 1450 developed by
Gutenberg, and which revolutionised the dissemination of knowledge at the time. In
a large wall installation comprising 65 separate prints, Without Words draws
attention to the loss of function of a defunct technology with the rust acting as a
colourant as well as a signifier of the transient nature of all things.
Developed over a few years, through a practice of reflection by Looking Forward,
Looking Back at his own work, my practice evolves through a series of material and
process lead activities venturing into a series of smaller framed works, which widen
the technical means used and demonstrates a continued fascination with creative
possibilities.
The letterpress fonts providing devices and shapes which are used in combination
with other visual elements to create works which are inspired by the driving force of
energy and the interconnectedness of things within the natural order.
To me all art is about perception. My non-representational work focuses on the
visible and invisible and is a type of visual poetry that emerges from a subliminal
space where experience, memory and imagination collide through the interaction of
materials and printmaking processes.
Seamus Heany in describing his poetry often referred to visual art elements of colour,
texture and pattern in describing his poetry. In my own work I often make analogies to
the poetic, the musicality or better still the symphonic when trying to describe my visual art pieces. While listening to music is a time-based event, visual art is a time-based event frozen in time to a single moment.
This exhibition marks forty-nine years since my first solo exhibition and continues my
preoccupation with non-representational work. By leaving out the “picture”, spectator
focus is placed on what is there, rather than on an illusionistic representation.
However, all the principles of art and conventions applying to the organisation of
visual art elements still apply
Artwork
