Kelly Moran

"First, I want them to be entertained."

Moran meets her first goal for those who view her work. Visitors experience delight within minute of entering the gallery. You can hear it in their exclamations and calls to their companions.

The toys, watch gears, and other downright interesting bits in her work draw them close to each work. If the visitors make a second round through the gallery, Moran sometimes achieves her second goal: they see something they didn't see the first time.

Kelly Moran, September 2015

It's only right that a second look beckons because the narrative possibilities in this exhibit abound with peril, fun, even affection for human foibles.

In this work, Moran is clear-eyed in her observations and not the least bit judge-y. She doesn't begrudge the eccentricities that get us into trouble, on weird adventures, or into confrontations we didn't seek but aren't going to walk away from.

In conversation, she'll go as deep you want to into motivation, materials, and technique but she doesn't force it on you. Any biography underpinnings in the work? Yes, but only if you press. Metaphysical influences? Some. But there's a lot of conversational steam in her art.

In addition to creating the work in Only Human, Moran has worked as a printmaker, painter, and ceramicist. Only Human is one of a series of her solo shows at d. m. allison art gallery.