Kelly Chorpening, MFA

Chair; Professor of Art
Kelly Chorpening
she, her, hers

Summary

Kelly Chorpening is an artist, curator, writer and educator. As an artist, she is primarily interested in contemporary drawing. Before joining UNR in 2022, she was the Course Leader for BA Fine Art: Drawing (2006-2019), and then Programme Director of Fine Art (2019-2022) at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK. She was a UAL Teaching Scholar from 2017-2020, delivering ‘Leveling the Playing Field’, a project that addressed Black and ethnically diverse students’ experiences within Fine Art at university. Her interdisciplinary work as a curator and educator has involved regular collaborations with the Architectural Association, Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music, the Gordon Museum of Pathology and the National Gallery, London. She has given conference presentations in the UK at: National Gallery London, Tate Britain, the ICA, Borough Road Gallery and Royal Society, and at Paradox Fine Art European Forum in Poznań, Poland and Granada, Spain, RMIT Melbourne, the American University Dubai, Paris College of Art and Carnegie Mellon University.

Research Interests

Practice-based interdisciplinary research projects include:

  • "Drawing in Social Space," (2022-2023)  a curatorial project, working with Renee Odjidja and Misty Ingham, in collaboration with Drawing Room London, Camberwell College of Arts and University of Nevada Reno, and involving artists and communities from around the UK, USA, Bolivia, Netherlands, Ghana and Morocco
  • "Between thought and space," (2014-2015) co-produced with Miraj Ahmed, with exhibitions and events at Camberwell College of Arts, Architectural Association and Dilston Grove, CGP, London; collective research working across art, architecture, sound and dance
  • Drawing - in and outside- writing, (2011-2012), a project between Kelly Chorpening, Rebecca Fortnum, Peter Morrens and Ans Nys, with two publications of the same name (one published by KULeuven, the other published jointly by RGAP, UK, and Sint-Lucas Visual Arts Ghent, Belgium), and a large-scale exhibition at Voorkamer in Lier, Belgium

Selected Publications

  • A Companion to Contemporary Drawing, 2020 [co-authored with Rebecca Fortnum] Wiley Blackwell
  • Associate Editor: Journey of Contemporary Painting, Intellect Books

Notable Exhibitions and Curations

  • "A History of Drawing," 2018, curator and exhibitor, Camberwell Space, London
  • "Immaterial Statements, 2016," solo exhibition, Horatio Jr., London
  • Selected for Jerwood Drawing Prize & Derwent Drawing Prize, 2016, touring exhibitions, London
  • "Between thought and space," 2015, co-curator and exhibitor, Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London
  • "In - and outside- writing," 2011, co-curator and exhibitor, Voorkamer, Lier, Belgium
  • "Vertigo Before Words," 2006, solo exhibition, Salon am Hof, Vienna
  • "Suspended Animation," 2006, solo exhibition, Shillam Smith Gallery, London

Education

  • MFA, Hunter College, City University of New York
  • BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art