Kelly McCallum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kelly McCallum
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| Born | 1979 Toronto, Ontario
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| Education | Rhode Island School of Design, Royal College of Art |
| Known for | Contemporary artist, taxidermist, sculptor, jewelry maker |
Kelly McCallum, born in 1979, is a Canadian artist who lives in London. She is known for her unique art that combines taxidermy, metalwork, and jewelry making.
Early Life and Education
When Kelly was young, she visited Norman Elder's house on school trips. She saw his amazing collection and started to appreciate taxidermy as an art form.
She studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), earning her first degree in 2001. After that, she spent a year studying Animal Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Kelly then returned to RISD to focus more on metalwork. From 2004 to 2006, she studied at the Royal College of Art in London, England, where she earned her Master of Arts Degree.
Inspiration for Her Art
From a young age, Kelly found beauty in many different things. She loves natural history, which is why she studied science. She also started her art studies with photography, a subject she has always admired.
Kelly is inspired by other artists like Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Mark Ryden, Frida Kahlo, David Wojnarowicz, Annette Messager, Joel-Peter Witkin, and Simon Ward. Her creative and sometimes playful taxidermy pieces can also be compared to the Victorian-era works of Walter Potter.
Her Artistic Career
Kelly McCallum creates large taxidermy art pieces, but she also makes many small, wearable art pieces like jewelry. She pays great attention to detail in all her work. This hands-on approach to creating art is what led her to study metalwork.
Her use of taxidermy places her among other well-known contemporary artists such as Polly Morgan, Damien Hirst, and Kate McGwire. Kelly gets her ideas from stories about how things change over time, how they decay, or how they are kept safe. This interest in the ideas of life and death connects her to artists like Tim Noble and Sue Webster and the brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman.
It can be tricky to describe Kelly's art because it mixes old Victorian taxidermy with modern metalwork. Her work often shows how things can be both preserved and falling apart at the same time.
Kelly's art has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions around the world. Her work has been displayed in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, Korea, the United Kingdom, and Poland. Famous places that have shown her art include the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Goldsmiths Hall, Sotheby's, Selfridges, and Liberty's. Her pieces are also owned by many private collectors worldwide. In 2009, McCallum was a main artist in the "Telling Tales" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
See also
