Kelly Richardson

Brief Biography

Kelly Richardson creates video installations of rich and complex landscapes that have been manipulated using CGI, animation and sound. Taking cues from 19th century painting, 20th century cinema and 21st century scientific inquiries, her practice offers imaginative views and constructions of the future that are plausible enough to prompt careful consideration of the present. The use of cutting edge imaging and video technologies is an appropriate means to do this, bridging fiction/real and present/future. Underpinning her research is a critical and often collaborative engagement with scientists, philosophers and writers whose work engages with issues related to climate change. This is not simply art ‘illustrating’ scientific predictions, more art being a critical reflective space through which thinking on these issues can be furthered. Environmental lawyer Gus Speth has located environmental problems in human behaviour, and argued that to deal with those ‘we need a spiritual and cultural transformation’ which scientists are not equipped to enact, but arguably artists are.

She has represented Canada at several contemporary art biennials including Gwangju, Busan and Beijing and been included in recent Canadian and Montréal Biennials. Her work has been featured in many important moving image festivals and exhibitions including the single largest survey of video work in the US and Europe since the millennium: The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, USA; New Frontiers at Sundance Film Festival; Future Projections at Toronto International Film Festival; Videosphere: A New Generation at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Visions Fugitives at Le Fresnoy, France. Her work is represented in national collections in three countries – the US, Canada, and the UK: including Hirshhorn Museum, USA; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, USA; SMoCA, USA; National Gallery of Canada; Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; Art Gallery of Ontario; Arts Council Collection, UK; Southampton City Art Gallery, England; Towner, England; among others. Recent solo exhibitions include Southampton City Art Gallery, England; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland; SMoCA, USA; Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver, Canada; Laing Art Gallery, England, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria; among others.

Prior to joining the Department of Visual Arts at UVic in 2017, Kelly was a Lecturer in Fine Art at Newcastle University, England which at the time of her tenure was the United Kingdom’s highest ranked university for Visual Arts. She received her MFA from Newcastle University, England and her undergraduate degree from the Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada.​