Exhibitions
2012 Queens Diamond Jubilee, Leytonstone House, London
2013 Bartlett End of Year Show, The Bartlett, London
2014 Bartlett End of Year Show, The Bartlett, London
2014 Open House London, The Mill London
2015 Bartlett End of Year Show, The Bartlett, London
2015 Open House London, The Mill, London
2017 Portrait Exhibition, Candid Arts Trust, London
2017 Spring Salon, Candid Arts Trust, London
2017 SWA 156th Annual Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London
2017 Profile, Ma - Wah Gallery, London
2018 Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018, Sky Arts TV
2018 SWA 157th Annual Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London
2018 Portray,V.23 - The Old Biscuit Factory, London
2018 137th Annual Exhibition, The Royal Ulster Academy, Belfast
2018 Be a Man, Theatre deli, London
Kelly Frank is a young British painter whose sensitive portraits capture the layered personalities of her sitters. Kelly explores portraiture through the lens of a psychologist and investigator, and her portraits of friends and family focus on their vulnerabilities.
By using a wide range of mediums such as charcoal, oil pastel, acrylics and oil paint, her paintings show a meticulous hand and forensic eye. Although Frank is a young, self-taught artist, she has managed to develop a her own unique and mature style. For example many of her portraits are characterised by a focus on the gaze of the sitter, the blurring or loss of prominent facial features as if faded like a memory. Her dry application of paint creates a velvet texture to the skin she portrays .The focal point of her portraits are the eyes. 'The eyes are the windows to the soul’, a phrase Kelly Frank takes more seriously than most. Her psychological approach is evident when she speaks about the ideas behind her paintings, ‘people are a process in which they simultaneously reveal and hide themselves’.
Her outlook, similar to that of an experienced councillor or therapist, is what's most important is what cannot be seen. Much of her work concerns hidden stories of domestic life as she seeks to peel away barriers and tell honest stories. Kelly was born in Durban, South Africa and after an intensive semester at the Barcelona Academy of Art in 2016 kick started her career as an artist. She recently appeared in the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 and her work has been exhibited at the Mall Galleries. Alongside her own projects she teaches painting and drawing classes.
