exhibition – Jersey City

Mana Contemporary Presents: Chuck Kelton- Transformations

Oct. 20, 2024–Jun. 30, 2025

The ancients believed in alchemical processes as catalysts for transmutation—of common metals into gold, of illness into immortality—a preternatural means for elevating humankind into other realms of possibilities. Chuck Kelton wields his photochemical palette the way a painter deploys their paint, and in this way, Kelton is also something of an alchemist, using developer, fixer, and photographic paper to render intuitive, imagined landscapes from technical processes.

 Here, the artist has made selections from his personal collection of African tribal masks to pair in conversation with his Chemograms. Whether used for ritual celebrations, performances, or mourning purposes, the masks were—and still are—believed to transform their wearer, who has the potential to metamorphose into other beings or allow a different spirit to reside within them when placed upon the body. 

 Alchemy connects these devices of ancient rites with Kelton’s abstract images of scientific sublimity and in uniting these two disparate bodies of work, we come to see other bonds between them. Similar formal qualities between the masks and the Chemograms begin to emerge, as do sympathies of color, tone, and mood. At this time of year, when it is said that the veil between realms is at its thinnest and most permeable, the pairings are a reminder that our contemporary experiences do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, they are but links in the vast, ethereal chain of total human experience. 

Text by Jessica Holmes

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