Their work encourages examination and disruption of the ways white dominant culture, fatphobia, and evangelicalism are inherently connected and deeply pervasive. It's a marking of the confusion and contradictions of the culture, a shedding of restriction, and an expanding of what is and could be.
Their BFA is from Memphis College of Art and an MFA ('16) from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Kelli is a fat, white, queer, southern artist based in Oakland, CA.
Select Exhibitions, Residencies, and Publications
2026
Stairway to Heaven, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, CA
2025
"GLP-1 Won't Save You:" A Fat Artist's Prophetic Message, Essay by Virgie Tovar
Fat Window, Winslow House Project, Vallejo, CA
Pop up exhibition by Good Mother Studios, San Francisco, CA
2024
Unweave Reweave, MakeArt Activation, Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA
2023
Pyramid Scheme, Bass & Reiner, San Francisco, CA
The Sarah Ball Allis Art Museum, The Charles Allis Museum, Milwaukee, WI
2022
Hot Tub Baptism, 307 Cortland, San Francisco, CA
2021
The Deinstall, Tiny Pedestal, Columbus, OH
2020
We Make Our Own Light, Kintsugi Books, New York, NY
We Met in Memphis, C.S. Hubble, Paducah, KY
A.I.R. Studio Paducah, Paducah, KY
2019
Heavier Than Expected, 155 Downey, San Francisco, CA
Enos Park Residency, Springfield Arts Association, Springfield, IL
2018
Intimacy and Gender, The Henderson, San Francisco, CA
2017
Two Truths and a Lie, Backyard Show, San Francisco, CA
NASTY WOMEN, Marshall Arts, Memphis, TN
2016
ZONED , Thrive. Offices, Helena, AR
Thrive. Artist Residency, Helena, AR
SAIC Low Residency MFA Show, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL
Issue 3- AR/LA/MS, Riverblood Magazine
525,600 MINS, Waterworks Visual Art Center, Salisbury, NC
MEDIA, Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh, NC, 2nd Place