David Kelley

David Kelley’s work traces the hidden ecologies of global infrastructure—from deep-sea mining to the oil sands of Alberta and the extraction of rare earth elements in Inner Mongolia, China. Working across film, photography, installation, and sculpture, he explores how technology, modernity, ecology, and memory operate as dynamic systems of mediation. His practice draws on essay film, experimental ethnography, and experimental theater, treating form as a space for affective experience and transgression.

Kelley approaches research as a generative aesthetic process, privileging sensorial and speculative modes over purely discursive ones. His projects often involve site-specific production, archival research, and the activation of everyday objects and theatrical constructions within installation environments. Scientific specimens—borrowed from natural history collections or fabricated in glass, ceramic, and stone—anchor his work in material histories while opening spaces for surreal and speculative interventions.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin; and The Bank, Shanghai. Upcoming exhibitions include LACMA in Los Angeles and the Global Visions FotoFest Biennial 2026 in Houston. Kelley holds an MFA from UC Irvine and was a 2010–11 Whitney ISP fellow. He is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at USC.