About the artist
Annie Kelly
Annie Kelly is an artist, design writer and decorator working between Sydney and Los Angeles. Her current drawings begin with trees and follow the movement of their limbs into intricate compositions.
Kelly resumed drawing after spending six months on her own during the COVID period. Sustained observation of trees developed into a series that moves between the character of an entire tree and the dense life of a single passage of wood. She is now exploring how these drawings behave at a much larger scale.
She studied at the South Australian School of Art and has exhibited in Los Angeles, including a recent group show at The Lodge. Her work across art and publishing includes the artist book Border Crossings, a visual and cultural exploration of life on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border. As a writer, she has reviewed books on artists and photographers for 1stDibs’ Required Reading and authored books on design and interiors.
Artist statement
What are trees doing to our bodies when we walk among them? This question runs through my drawings and photography. It finds a parallel in shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of “forest bathing”: slowing down and experiencing nature through the senses.
I am interested in the physical presence of trees—their scale, their age, their life force—and how we feel in their company. Through photography I observe their forms; through drawing I explore the movement between trees, bodies and anatomy, where branches and trunks suggest figures that almost appear. Both invite sustained attention to trees and to our own sense of being among them.