Artist Statement

Rebecca Kelly draws upon her experience as an actor and teacher, as well as a storyteller, to create her work as a visual artist.

Her experience in the theater is reflected in dramatic choices of color or at times, lack of color. Rebecca’s storytelling is apparent in her use of words within her work. Words, phrases and secret codes are incorporated in her sculptures and artists books. Themes are hidden allowing the viewers to create their own response to the work.

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Artist Biography

Rebecca Kelly is a visual artist, curator and storyteller. Ms. Kelly is a teaching artist at Lehigh University Art Galleries, Young Audiences of NJ and PA, and ARTSQUEST in Bethlehem, PA. Ms. Kelly is a gifted visual artist who specializes in Book and Textile Arts. Rebecca’s artists books were recently shown at Here and Now: 100 Years of LUAG, 100 Local Artists and Prompt and Prompted at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, IL. Rebecca’s fabric work is featured in the fall 2026 exhibition Let's begin in the middle  at the InLiquid gallery in Philadelphia, PA. exploring textiles as a visual language where personal memory meets cultural inheritance.

Rebecca’s work has also been exhibited at The Philadelphia Museum of Art Library, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, The Phillips Mill Art Association Annual Juried Show, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center in Kalamazoo, MI, Hunterdon Art Museum Members Show and St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Ms. Kelly won a third prize in Small Works Compendium 2025 at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Rebecca curated the award-winning Bucks County Community ArtMobile in 2009-2011, transFORMations: Art Made from Recycled and Reused Materials which was viewed by over 40,000 individuals!

Since moving to Pennsylvania, Rebecca forages for barks, flowers, nuts, weeds and uses materials from her garden and local farms in her natural dye, printmaking and watercolor practice. She embroiders florals on bundle dyed silk. Makes marks on handmade paper with natural inks and watercolors.

Last spring, Rebecca facilitated Shibori Dye workshops for the creation of the deep blue river suits in ARTYARD’s Aqualumina Festival in Frenchtown, NJ!

Rebecca holds a master’s degree in child development from Sarah Lawrence College.

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Education

Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
MA

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Bibliography

2024
Blainesworld Webcast Interview with Rebecca Kelly

2021
"Rebecca Kelly: The Artist as Healer," Art for Real People

2011
Dube, Ilene, "Raw Beauty: The Art of Capturing the Female Spirit"

2010
Dube, Ilene, “Stories about Books,” TimeOFF, Princeton Packet

2007
Freeman, Allison, "Making art from found objects," New Jersey Star Ledger

2006
"4 Perspectives: A Book Arts Exhibit", Dog Eared Magazine

2006 Catalogue, National Collage Society

Donahue, Victoria, "Collage: An enigmatic medium,” Philadelphia Inquirer

Purcell, Janet, " Artists tell their story through visual vocabulary" Trenton Times, NJ

2004
Kalonick, Julian, "The Things They Carry," TimeOFF, Princeton Packet

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Professional Experience

Present
Teaching Artist at The Creative Center, New York, New York

Teaching Artist at Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA

Teaching Artist at The Banana Factory in Bethlehem, PA

2000 - present
Storyteller and Teaching Book Artist; Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern PA

2011 - 2012
Studio Teacher at Horace Mann School, Nursery Division, New York, NY

Exhibitions

2026
Let's begin in the middle, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Here and Now: 100 Years of LUAG, 100 Local Artists, The HydePark Art Center, Chicago, IL

Prompt and Prompted at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, IL

2025
Compendium of Small Works, Third Prize, Lafayette College, Easton, PA

2024
Bodies of Knowledge: multi-site art exhibition that explores the many roles that the human body takes in shaping and creating knowledge. Billboard located on the South Greenway, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA

Compendium of Small Works, Honorable Mention, Banana Factory, Bethlehem, PA

Books as Life, Philadelphia Center for the Book, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2023
Illustrated Accordion, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, MI

2022
(Re)bound: The Altered Book, South Haven Center for the Arts, South Haven, MI

Member Exhibition, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ

Phillips Mill 93rd Annual Juried Exhibition, New Hope, PA

2020
Jacob's Ladder: Dedicated to Jacob Blake, SHUVU Visionary Art Magazine Lab/Shul

These Times, Philadelphia Center for the Book, Philadelphia, PA

2011
Philadelphia Center for the Book: Bodies of Text

2010
9th International Toy Theater Festival, Great Small Works, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY

2009
Found and Bound: Philadelphia Museum of Art Library, Perelman Building,
Philadelphia, PA

2008
National Collage Society Annual Exhibition, Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA

8th International Toy Theater Festival, Great Small Works, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY

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Curated Exhibitions

2011
raw beauty: An exhibition of sculpture, Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton, NJ

2010
Off the Page: Artists Books and Limited Editions, Stuart Country Day School, Princeton, NJ

2009 - 2011
transFORMation: Making art from recycled and reused materials, Artmobile traveling exhibit and Hicks Gallery of Art, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA

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Artist Videos

2023
15th Annual Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Illustrated Accordion Exhibition

^{Each year the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center (KBAC) sponsors The Illustrated Accordion, an exhibition that focuses on books created in the accordion form. The basic structure of an accordion book is simple: a long piece of paper folded into pages that can be read like a book or spread open and displayed like a banner. In 2023 this exhibition, open to all emerging and established artists, features the work of over 130 artists that take this book form to a new level. Visit our website at https://kalbookarts.org}

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