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John Kelly is a director, choreographer, vocalist, writer, and artist who has received major honors ranging a 2013 USA Artists Award Fellowship, to the 2007 Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. His character driven dance theatre works range from solo to large group, and have often focused on autobiographical, cultural, political issues, the challenges faced by social outsiders, and the nature of creative genius. Subjects have included the history of gay persecution, 20th Century tattoo culture, the Berlin Wall, the AIDS epidemic, Mythology, Expressionistic Film, as well as character studies based on Egon Schiele, Caravaggio, Antonin Artaud, Joni Mitchell, and Jean Cocteau. These works have been commissioned by MET Live Arts, The Kitchen, La MaMa, Lincoln Center, the Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, NY Live Arts, BAM’s Next Wave Festival, REDCAT, and London’s Tate Modern. He is currently creating a new work in conjunction with a Kaatsbaan Cultural Park Residency and the Baryshnikov Arts Center.
Kelly grew up intending to pursue a career in visual art, but teenage exposure to the dance compelled him to receive a scholarship to study at The American Ballet Theatre School, and work as a trainee with the Harkness Ballet. He also danced with modern dance pioneer Charles Weidman before abandoning dance to pursue his initial visual art calling, at which point he studied painting, drawing and printmaking at Parsons School of Design and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts School. He returned to performing in the early 1980’s – initially in the club scene that flourished in New York’s East Village, developing a repertoire of short works that evolved into larger multi-media productions that have been commissioned by and performed in venues ranging from La Mama to The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival.
Since then, Kelly has created over 70 performance works, the subject matter of which has generally fallen into 2 categories: works based on existing cultural icons (Egon Schiele, Joni Mitchell), and more personal works that stem from personal experience and autobiography. His latest group work “Underneath The Skin” (based on the life of 20th century novelist and tattoo artist Samuel Steward) was recently performed at La MaMa.
Kelly’s work has received 2 Bessie Awards, 2 Obie Awards, 2 NEA Awards American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius Awards, a CalArts/ Alpert Award in Dance/Performance, a Visual AIDS Vanguard Award, the Ethyl Eichelberger Award, and a Mabou Mines ‘Ruthie’ Award. Fellowships include The Rome Price in Visual Art at American Academy in Rome, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, The Guggenheim Foundation, The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Art Matters, Inc., and USA Artists. Creative residencies include Yaddo, MacDowell, The Park Avenue Armory, Civitella Ranieri, The Bogliasco Foundation, and the LMCC Process Space Artist in Residence Program. He was a Guest Lecturer at Harvard University and Visiting Artist in Residence at Bard College. Mentorship involvement includes the Queer Art Mentorship program, the Helix Queer Performance Network, and The Award: NYC.
Kelly’s visual artwork involves self-portraiture, including drawing and painting, photography and video; two of his films (“The Dagmar Onassis Story” and “The Mona Lisa”) are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art. His recent solo exhibition “Sideways Into The Shadows” included 54 hand drawn memorial portraits of friends and lovers lost to the AIDS epidemic. He just completed his first graphic novel “A Friend Gave Me A Book”.
As actor and vocalist Kelly’s acting credits include the Broadway production of “James Joyce’s The Dead” (Bartell D’Arcy) at the Belasco Theatre; Christopher Marlowe’s “Dido, Queen of Carthage” (Cupid - Eliot Norton Best Actor Award) directed by Neil Bartlett at American Repertory Theatre; Rinde Eckert’s “Orpheus X” (Jon/Persephone) at A.R.T. and Theatre For A New Audience; “Dog Days” (Prince the Dog Man), an opera by David Little at Peak Performances, both directed by Robert Woodruff; “The Threepenny Opera” (Street Singer/Filch) directed by Martha Clarke at Atlantic Theatre Company; “Uncivil Wars: Moving w Brecht & Eisler” (Viceroy/Madame) directed by David Gordon at the Walker Arts Center; “Arjuna’s Dilemma” (Krishna), an oratorio by Douglas J. Cuomo, directed by Robin Guarino, at BAM; “The Echo Drift” (Governor/The Moth) a chamber opera by Mikael Karlsson, directed by Mallory Catlett with the prototype Festival; “The Clerk’s Tale” (Spencer Reese) a film by James Franco.
I was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1989. I have been on medications since 1996, and have remained completely asymptomatic. I lost my first partner to AIDS in 1982, around the same time that my career as a performance artist started getting underway. So my adult life and my career have been informed from the get go by the AIDS pandemic. The performance work has been-
I made a conscious decision that my place as an activist was not in the streets but on the stage, creating new work and functioning as an example of survival and creative fuel in the face of catastrophe. Many of the performance works I made dealt with AIDS in various ways: directly, metaphorically, suggestively. The notion and reality of death – and its meaning for these alive – has permeated many of these works.
These are 2 of my public statements
that have been published, posted and incorporated into various collective
forums, including the The Foundation for the AIDS Monument
(“FAM”), a non-profit which has created “Stories: The AIDS Monument”
in West Hollywood, California.
1:
"Happy as I limp my wrist in pride for us — the outcast, the maligned, the persecuted, the entrapped, the murdered, the sweated, the followed, the avoided, the violated, the blackmailed, the serial-tattooed, the sneered, the ostracized, the erased, the hated, the invisible, the raped, the tolerated, the patronized, the parodied, the joke, the denigrated, the evicted, the diminished, the emasculated, the de-promed, the expelled, the therapized, the shock-treated, the lobotomized, the numbed and the drugged, the lost, the dead, the erased, the removed from tangible history, the persistent dwellers in blessed proximity, the survivors, the warriors, the steadfast, the persistent, the inclusive, the non-ageist, the color blind, the expansive, the essential, the imaginative, the true, the warriors, the activists both stewing and shout spewing, the long term survivors demanding to be honored, the generational glue that is gold, the striving and striding toward our place in the sun that demands to be respected, and the imperative that we acknowledge that the AIDS pandemic ruptured our inter-generational dialogue, and our personal, systemic, collective and more generally cadenced growth.
This/MY generation of artists — and OUR audiences — disappeared.
YOU are standing on our generational, grave–like, culturally curtailed, and tribally intrinsic sinkhole. You may be afloat and faring ok on the gravitas of a vast family of ghosts and heart shattering loss, of dead young unresolved spirits. Advance, as we had done, in your own way and manner, and as you continue to grow and transform the world, please aim to bless the ground on which you re-trace our analog step.
WE walk the very same path.”
2:
“LIFE IS ALREADY CONSEQUENTIAL
I SURVIVED RELIGION – VIOLENT HOMOPHOBIA – DEPRESSION
HIV – AND THE TRAUMA OF UNFATHOMABLE LOSS TO THE AIDS PANDEMIC
I RAIL AT THE SILENCING OF MY GENERATION
STARE INTO THIS SINKHOLE
THE WHY OF I STILL DRIVEN TO VOICE MY REMAINS
TO SWIM IMPOSSIBLE SEAS OF
RECKONING”
EDUCATION
2005 | Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston (traditional painting techniques)
1996 | Theatre D’Ange Fou; Paris, France (Decroux Corporeal Mime)
1993 | Pickle Family Circus; San Francisco (trapeze; tite-wire) 1990 | Accademia Musicale Ottorino Respighi; Assisi, Italy (vocal studies)
1976-79 | Parsons School of Design, NY; (drawing; painting; photography; illustration)
1974-76 | Harkness House for Ballet Arts, Trainee; (technique; flamenco; jazz; repertoire)
1972-75 | American Ballet Theatre School, Scholarship; (technique; pas de deux; character; repertoire)
1972-74 | Charles Weidman Expression of Two Arts Theatre; (modern technique; repertoire); James Waring Studio; (ballet)
PERFORMANCE WORKS
2024 INVERSIONS
2019/2022 UNDERNEATH THE SKIN
2019 WEILL BOY, BRECHT GIRL, EISLER MANN
2019 THE CRAZY CRIES OF LOVE
2017/2018 TIME NO LINE
2017 DOWN TO YOU: JOHN KELLY SINGS JONI MITCHELL
2017 TIME NO LINE
2016 BEAUTY KILLS ME
2015 LOVE OF A POET (Reconstruction/Revision)
2014 ESCAPE ARTIST REDUX (Video Installation)
2013 REBEL SONGS OF A RANGE QUEEN
2013 CARAVAGGIO SONGS: MUSIC FROM THE ESCAPE ARTIST
2012 MUSE ASCENDING A STAIRCASE (Video Installation & Photography Exhibition)
2012 JOHN KELLY & DARGELOS
2011 THE ESCAPE ARTIST
2011 FIND MY WAY HOME (Reconstruction/Revision)
2010 COHESION
2010 PASS THE BLUTWURST, BITTE (Reconstruction/Revision)
2009/10 PAVED PARADISE REDUX
2009 SONGS FOR A SHINY HOT NIGHT: JONI MITCHELL’S COURT AND SPARK
2008 DARGELOS AT BAR 13
2007 CARA VIAGGIO
2007 MUSIC FOR ROMANIANS
2006 MRS. HAMLET
2006 21ST CENTURY VOX
2002/05 SHINY HOT NIGHTS
2004 THE SKIN I’M IN
2003 GET UP AND JIVE
2002 THE PARADISE PROJECT
2001 BROTHER
1999 MOONDRUNK
1999 CAFÉ BLUEBEARD HOF
1998 SING LOW SWEET LOVE
1998 LIFE OF CRUELTY
1998 FIND MY WAY HOME
1997 PAVED PARADISE
1996 20TH CENTURY VOX
1995 CONSTANT STRANGER
1995 PASS THE BLUTWURST, BITTE (Reconstruction)
1994 FAR CRY FROM BLISS
1993 LIGHT SHALL LIFT THEM
1993 I WANT YOUR MYTH
1992 AKIN: TRUE BUT DOUR
1992 ARIAS I LOVE
1992 DIVINE PROMISCUE
1991 DOWN IN THE MOUTH
1991 HER TENDER MOMENT
1990 LOVE OF A POET
1990 THE DAGMAR ONASSIS STORY (revision for THE DECADE SHOW)
1990 CUPID AND DEATH
1990 MAYBE IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
1988 ODE TO A CUBE
1988 FIND MY WAY HOME
1986 BORN WITH THE MOON IN CANCER
1986 PASS THE BLUTWURST, BITTE
1985/6 DIARY OF A SOMNAMBULIST
1985 GO WEST JUNGER MANN
1985 JOHN KELLY SINGS
1985 LONG LIVE THE KNIFE
PERFORMANCE WORKS IN CLUBS 1980-1985
1985 ST. GEORGE KILLED THE DRAGON
1984 PIERROT, PIRRETTE, PET
1984 DEATH OF MARAT
1984 TRANS SIBERIAN EXPRESS
1984 THE DAGMAR ONASSIS STORY
1983 S. SEBASTIANO
1983 NARCISSUS
1983 THE FORCES OF DESTINY
1983 PASS THE KNACHWURST, BITTE
1983 THE MONA LISA
1983 DEATH IN DALLAS
1982 LIFE WITHOUT GRACE
1982 LA DIVINA
1981 MARIA IN RIO
1981 ORFEO
1980 DAGMAR A MACBETTO
RECENT PERFORMANCE VENUES
2023 | Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Howl Gallery, NY; Parkside Lounge, NY
2022 | La MaMa, ETC, NY
2019 | Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NY; REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA; Café Sabarsky at The Neue Galerie, NY; MET LIVE ARTS at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), NY
2018 | La MaMa, NY; Performance Space New York
2017 | La MaMa, NY; American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge; Mladi Levi Festival, Ljubljana, Slovania
2016 | Abrons Arts Center Underground, NY; St Marks Danspace, NY; Joes Pub, NY; MASS MOCA, North Adams, MA; Dancers Responding to AIDS
2015 | River To River Festival, Governors Island, NY; Participant Gallery, NY
2014 | Bryn Mawr University; Hudson Opera House; Bard Live Arts
2013 | Participant Gallery, NY; Spiegeltent, Bard College
2012 | Joe’s Pub, Public Theatre, NY
2011 | New York Live Arts, NY; Museum of Art & Design, NY; Performance Space 122, NY; Park Avenue Armory, NY; Afterglow Festival, Provincetown, MA
2010 | Park Avenue Armory, NY; Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA; Galapagos, NY; Il Poisson Rouge, NY; MASS MoCA; Abrons Art Center, NY; Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX
2009 | Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN; Symphony Space, New York, NY; Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY; River To River Festival, Castle Clinton, NY; One Arm Red, Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY
2008 | Tate Modern, London, UK; Hong Kong International Festival, China; Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, NY; Speigletent, Bard College, NY
2007 | Accademia Americana in Roma, Italy; Accademia di Romania in Roma, Italy; Goteborg City Theatre, Goteborg, Sweden, Hassleblad Award for Nan Goldin; Theater Offensive, Boston
2006 | Santa Monica Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA; Spiegel Tent, New York, NY; Southern Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
2005 | American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA
2004 | Joyce Theatre, Altogether Different Festival, NY; Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA; Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt, Germany; On The Boards, Seattle, WA; Oberlin Dance Collective, San Francisco
2003 | Howl Festival, NY; Gagosian Gallery, Bang On A Can Benefit, NY
2002 | Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; Sundance Theater Institute; The Kitchen, NY
2001 | Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT; Performance Space122, NY; Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, NY; Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA
1999 | New Victory Theatre, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers New Visions Series, NY; PS 1, Long Island City, NY; Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego, CA.
VISUAL ART EXHIBITIONS (solo shows marked by *asterisk)
2023 | MAKE ME FEEL MIGHTY REAL: DRAG/TECH AND THE QUEER AVATAR, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Bill Arning Exhibitions, Kinderhook, NY; ‘The Performative Self-Portrait’, RISD Museum, Providence, RI
2021 | ICONS, ICONOCLASTS, AND OUTSIDERS, Howl Arts, NY
2018 | *SIDEWAYS INTO THE SHADOWS, Howl! Happening, NY; Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT; WORKS: BOBBY BUSNACH | KATRINA DEL MAR | MICHELLE HANDELMANN | JOHN KELLY | BOBBY MILLER, AMP: Art Market Provincetown, MA; CAST OF CHARACTERS, Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, NY
2017 | THE NATURE LAB, LABspace, Hillside, NY
2015 | LIKE, Rhode Island School of Design Painting Gallery, RI; COUNTER) PUBLIC ART, INTERVENTION, & PERFORMANCE IN LOWER MANHATTAN FROM 1978- 1993, Arts Center, Governors Island, NY
2014 | *MUSE ASCENDING A STAIRCASE, Center Hall Gallery, Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY; THE HOUSE IS OPEN, Fisher Center, Bard Live Arts, NY
2013 | MUSE ASCENDING A STAIRCASE (video & photography installation), ‘Masquerade’ Exhibition, Coreana Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2012 | * SELF-PORTRAITS, Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2011 | LOOKING AT MUSIC 3.0, Museum of Modern Art, NY
2010 | * SCHIELE-KELLY, La Galleria La MaMa, NY ; QUEERE VOICE, Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA, curated by Ingrid Schaffner; LONDON BIENNALE SATELLITE SHOW, Christopher Henry Gallery, NY, curated by Inbred Hybrid Collective; VIRTUOSO ILLUSION: CROSS-DRESSING AND THE NEW MEDIA AVANT-GARDE, MIT List Visual Arts Center, curated by Michael Rush
2009 | *THE MIRROR STAGES: SELF-PORTRAITS 1979-2009, Alexander Gray Associates, NY; ‘Postcards From The Edge’, Metro Pictures, NY
2007 | *CARA VIAGGIO, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy; ONE DAY IT WILL PLEASE US TO REMEMBER EVEN THIS, 33 Plaques throughout NYC marking contemporary history & cell tour, Creative Time, NY; TRYINGTOLOAD, MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome; SUMMERFEST, at Villa Massimo, Rome; ‘Tiber Hawks’, FotoGrafia – Festival Internationale di Roma, Gallery of Art, Temple University, Rome; STARS AND STRIPES, Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Florence, Italy; SE UNA NOTTE D’APRILE, Blueroom Rialtosantambrogio, Rome, Italy
2005 | *RECYCLING THE MUSE, Baker Room Gallery, Radcliffe Yard, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 2004 | EAST VILLAGE USA, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY
2003 | *THE PARADISE PROJECT, The Kitchen, NY
2002 | ENOUGH ABOUT ME; Momenta Arts, Williamsburg, NY
2001 | *BROTHER, Performance Space 122 Gallery, NY; APPROPRIATING SYMBOLS, Whitney Art Works, Greenport, NY 2000 | FRIENDSHIPS IN ARCADIA: ARTIST’S AND WRITERS AT YADDO, Art In General, & Saratoga Art Museum, NY 33.
AWARDS | GRANTS | FELLOWSHIPS | RESIDENCIES
2023 | Baryshnikov Arts Fellowship At Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Tivoli, NY; Good Works Foundation, Fellowship; Yaddo, NY (residency)
2022 | Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (residency); Good Works Foundation, Fellowship
2021 | Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Fellowship; Art Matters, Inc., Grant
2020 | The Ruth Maleczech Award; Art Matters, Inc, Grant; Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grant
2019 | Good Works Foundation, Fellowship; Ucross Foundation, WY (residency); Yaddo (residency)
2018 | New York State Council on the Arts, Grant for “Underneath The Skin”; MacDowell (residency)
2017 | NEA Dance Grant for “Time No Line”; Yaddo (residency); Millay Arts (residency)
2016 | Good Works Foundation, Fellowship; Dance In Process Residency, Gibney Dance Center; MASS MoCA, creative residency; Abrons Arts Center, performance workshop
2015 | Good Works Foundation, Fellowship; Yaddo (residency); MacDowell (residency)
2014 | LMCC Process Space Artist Residency
2013 | USA Artists Award ‘Gracie’ Fellowship; Visiting Artist in Residence, Bard College; Yaddo (residency): The ‘Oscar Wilde Was Right: An Echo Is Often More Beautiful Than The Voice It Repeats’ Otto Retter Award
2012 | Bogliasco Foundation, Italy (residency); Good Works Foundation, Grant; MacDowell (residency)
2011 | NEA American Masterpieces (Dance) Award, for “Find My Way Home”; Jerome Robbins Foundation, Grant; Ethyl Eichelberger Award; MacDowell (residency)
2010 | NEA American Masterpieces (Dance) Award, for “Pass The Blutwurst, Bitte”; Visual AIDS Vanguard Award; Artist In Residence, Park Avenue Armory, NY; Sundance Institute Theatre Program; Civitella Ranieri Center, Umbria, Italy (residency)
2008-09 | ARC (Advancement, Reinvention, Creativity) Grant; Digital Performance Institute, (residency)
2006-07 | Rome Prize in Visual Art, The American Academy In Rome; Good Works Foundation, Grant
2005 | Elliot Norton Award, Outstanding Actor Large Ensemble, for ‘Dido, Queen of Carthage’, A.R.T.
2004-05 | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University (fellowship)
2003 | Yaddo (residency)
2001 | Cal/Arts Alpert Award, in Dance/Performance
2001 | New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship
1998-99 | P.S.1 National Studio Artist Program, The Clocktower, NY
1998 | NEA Creation Grant
1991-98 | New York State Council for the Arts, Grants
1997 | MacDowell (residency)
1996 | NEA Creation/Presentation Grant
1991-1996 | NEA Choreographer Fellowships
1991 & 1987 | Obie Awards
1991 | New York Foundation for the Arts, Artist Fellowship
1989 | John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
1988 & 1986 | Bessie Awards
PRESS
Wendy Stuart, If These Walls Could Talk, (podcast), Wendy Stuart TV, September 20, 2023
Hugh Ryan, The Trashy, Freaky, DIY East Village Scene That Birthed Modern Drag, Curbed, September 12, 2023
Elizabeth Vincentelli, ‘Dramatizing the Story of a Gay Mid-Century Tattoo Artist Who Was So Much More’, The New York Times, December 1, 2022
Helen Shaw, ‘Underneath The Skin’, The New Yorker, December 2022
Darryl Reilly, ‘Underneath The Skin’, TheaterScene.org, December 2022
David Barbour, ‘Theatre in Review: Underneath the Skin (La MaMa)’, Lighting & Sound America, December 5, 2022
Victor Gluck, ‘Underneath The Skin’, TheaterScene.net, December 6, 2022
Brandon Judell, ‘The Man Who Collected Rudolph Valentino’s Pubic Hair: Going “Underneath the Skin” with John Kelly’, December 21, 2022
Gia Kourlas, Menace ‘Moving Through the Body
Tim Murphy, Robert La Fosse and John Kelly Discuss HIV, the Devil and Their New Take on a Stravinsky Classic, TheBody, February 7, 2020
John Kelly plays the Devil in “L’Histoire du Soldat,” with choreography by Robert La Fosse’, The New York Times, Feb 14, 2020
Jonathan Matthews, John Kelly Underneath The Skin, Eye On Dance, October 19, 2019
Robert Johnson, IMPRESSIONS: John Kelly’s “Underneath the Skin” at NYU Skirball, The Dance Enthusiast, October 16, 2019
TWI-NY TALK: JOHN KELLY, This Week In New York, October 10, 2019
We Were Making A Lot Of Noise, Pod De Deux podcast, October 10, 2019
Jacki Apple, Performance in Retrospect:Autobiography, Memoir, and History, FABRIK, May 17, 2019
Patrick Hurley, ‘A Letter To John Kelly’, That Awesome Theatre Blog!‘, April 28, 2019
Jeff Slayton, ‘John Kelly at Redcat: Performance Art at it’s Best!‘, LA Dance Chronicle, April 27, 2019
Margaret Gray, ‘John Kelly resurrects his past lives: dancer, filmmaker, drag performer and so much more‘, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2019
Harvey Perr, ‘Tempis Fugit‘ (review), Stage and Cinema in Los Angeles, April 26, 2019
Allison Tate, ‘New Art Performance Revisits the Height of the AIDS Crisis’, Advocate LA, April 24, 2019
Ann Haskins, ‘Defying/defining the times‘, Cultural Weekly, April 24, 2019
John Paul King, ‘Performance artist John Kelly enacts living history in ‘Time No Line’, Los Angeles Blade, April 18, 2019
‘John Kelly at REDCAT‘, ParisLA, April 19, 2019
Susan Rand Brown, ‘John Kelly’s Art of Loss and Resilience‘, Wicked Local – Provincetown Banner, June 7, 2018
Caroline Bankoff, Heather Corcoran, Nancy Hass & M.H. Miller, ‘What New York Was Like in the Early ’80s — Hour by Hour‘, New York Times T Magazine, April 16, 2018
Cheryl Dunn, ‘’21 Stars Remember The Golden Age of New York Theater‘, New York Times T Magazine, April 16, 2018
David Kennerley, Review: ‘Stardust Memories’, Gay City News, March 24, 2018
Bowery Boogie, Clayton’s Corner: Of Generations and Gentrification, March 21, 2018
Scott Stiffler, Review: ‘Time’ Finds John Kelly In Fine (if not linear) Form‘, Chelsea Now, March 23, 2018
JOHN KELLY: TIME NO LINE, This Week In New York, March 18, 2018
THE HANGOVER REPORT – ‘John Kelly’s TIME NO LINE weaves together a living memoir, creating art in the process‘
by Drediman, March 11, 2018
Review: Performance Artist John Kelly Recreates His Lively Career in ‘Time No Line’, Stage Buddy, March 6, 2018
Elizabeth Vincentelli, Review: In ‘Time No Line,’ John Kelly Revisits Decades of Diary Entries, The New York Times, March 5, 2018
Raven Scook, Time No Line, Time Out New York, March 11, 2018
Darryl Reilly, Time No Line, Theatre Scene, February 27, 2018
Jacquelyn Claire, Time No Line At La Mama’s Ellen Stewart Theatre, Stage Biz, February 27, 2018
Dan Callahan, ‘Artists Are Warriors’: An Interview With John Kelly, a Performer Outside of Time, The Village Voice, February 26, 2018
Zachary Wolfe, The Best Opera and Vocal Performances of 2017, (‘Down To You’), The New York Times, December 7, 2017
‘Reasons To Love New York‘, New York Magazine, December 10, 2017
Chris Riemer, ‘John Kelly’s ‘Live Memoir’ Entertains While Enlightening Audience to LGBT History‘, The Beacon, October 26, 2016
Jose Solis, Interview: ‘John Kelly on Getting in Touch with His Feral Side for Post-Apocalyptic Opera ‘Dog Days’, StageBuddy, January, 2016
Laura Collins-Hughes, ‘John Kelly Revives ‘Love of a Poet’, The New York Times, June 27, 2015
Delarue, ‘John Kelly Winds Up His Memorably Tragicomic Performance Piece on Governors Island’, New York Music Daily, June 2015
‘John Kelly Interview: Love of a Poet, Then and Now’, NYC-ARTS, June 2015
Libby and Roberta, ‘Performance Artist John Kelly Escapes into Caravaggio’– an artblog radio podcast, Jan 21, 2014
Wickham Boyle, ‘The Hustle Doesn’t Stop’, EdgeMediaNetWork, July 16, 2012
‘Cabaret Scenes’, NightLifeExchange, June 28, 2012
Harvey Perr, ‘Woe And Behold’, Stage and Cinema, October 18, 2012
‘Night Life’, The New Yorker, October 28 2012 – November 4 2012
Joan Acocella, Critic’s Notebook: ‘Reconstruction’, The New Yorker, Nov. 24, 2011
Lucid Culture, ‘John Kelly’s Escape Artist Cheats Death’, April 22, 2011
Ben Brantley, ‘Egon Schiele Seen From Many Angles’, The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2010
Scott Brown, ‘Artist Meets Artist in John Kelly’s Pass the Blutwurst, Bitte’, New York Magazine, Dec. 6, 2010
Elizabeth Kley, ‘Alter Egon’, Artnet.com, January 2011
Robert Faires, 'Paved Paradise Redux: The Art of Joni Mitchell', The Austin Chronicle, December 1, 2010
Nick Curley, ‘Egon, Baby, Gone’, New York Press, Nov. 30, 2010
Chrissie Iles, Art Forum, ‘Blue (John Kelly) Best Of 2009’ December 2009
Carol Diehl, Art In America, ‘John Kelly / Alexander Gray’, November, 2009
Andrew Willett, Strange Radiation, ‘Peoples Parties‘, August 2009
Ariel Levy, The New Yorker: Talk Of The Town, Homage Dept: ‘Being Joni’, Aug. 17, 2009
Band Of Thebes, ‘The New Yorker on John Kelly: “An Aesthetic Octopus Like Me”’. August 3, 2009
Holland Cotter, “THE MIRROR STAGES: SELF-PORTRAITS 1979-2009”, New York Times, June 25, 2009
Morgan Falconer, ‘John Kelly: Alexander Gray Associates, New York, USA’ Frieze, July 14, 2009
Dale’s MySpace Blog, blog.myspace.com/deltamagnet, August 1, 2009
Robert Sokol, ‘John Kelly Looks At Life From Both Sides Now’, Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco, July 30, 2009
Steve Murray, ‘Paved Paradise Redux – John Kelly Sings Joni Mitchell’, Rrazz Room, Hotel Nikko, San Francisco, July 31, 2009
Patrick Lee, “Just Shows To Go You” (interview), June 24, 2009
Patrick Leader (the jonimitchell.com library), ‘Paved Paradise Redux: The Art of Joni Mitchell’, June 21, 2009
Elizabeth Vincentelli, “Joni, But Not Phony”, New York Post, June 22, 2009
Patrick Lee, “Paved Paradise Redux”( review), TheaterMania, June 22, 2009
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, “John + Joni = !”, NFINITEBODY, June 19, 2009
Planet Homo, ‘Paving Paradise’, January 6, 2009
Colin McEnroe, “Shadows And Light”, HartfordCourant,com, January 25, 2009
John Adamian, “The Art Of Being Joni”, Hartford Advocate, January 25, 2009
Steve Wiecking, “His and Hers: John Kelly makes his own kind of music, Joni Mitchell’s way”, Seattle Met, December 2008.
Louise Kennedy, Review: From Out On Th Edge to the Center of Joni Mitchell’s World, The Boston Globe, November 3, 2007
Matthew Gilbert, Article: A Case Of Her: John Kelly Moves Audiences and the Singer Herself,The Boston Globe, October 28, 2007
Brian Jewell, Article: John Kelly Brings Joni MItchell To “Out On The Edge”, Bay Windows, November 1, 2007
William Henderson, Article: Paradise Found: A Stunning Theatrical Interpretation, In Newsweekly, October 31, 2007
Lightsey Darst, Review: Consumed By The Hungry Air: “Solo” At The Southern, May 9, 2006.
Phil Trager, “Faces”, Steidel, 2006, cover, 2, 9, 31, 33.
Roberta Smith, “Looking Back At the Flurry On the Far Side”, The New York Times, Dec. 10, 2004
Lance Esplund, “Life Among the Village People”, December 10, 2004
Sharon Lerner, Interview, WNYC Radio, Studio 360: Parody: Johnny Loves Joni, Oct. 16, 2004.
Susan Yung, Review: Altogether Out Of The Past: “John Kelly’s ‘Skin’ Games”, Flash Review (online), Sept. 9, 2004.
Charlie Dyer, Interview, SIRIUS, Radio, NY, Out Q Last Call #149, June 24, 2004.
David Garland, Interview, WNYC Radio, NY, Spinning On Air, May 21, 2004.
Culturebot, Online Review Woman Of Heart And Mind, May 21, 2004.
Wick Boyle, Article: “A Queen With Substance: John Kelly Plumbs The Politics Underlying Joni Mitchell’s Music”, Gay City News, March 18, 2004.
Jed Ryan, Interview: “John Kelly Brings Joni Mitchell To Fez!: The Performance Artist Talks About His New Show, His Past Body of Work, & The State Of Gay Culture”, March 2004.
Deborah Jowitt, Review: “O For A Muse Of Fire: Choreographers Enter History, Bringing It To Bear On The Present And The Personal”, The Village Voice, Jan. 14, 2004.
Jennifer Dunning, Review, “Having A Play Date With ‘The Children Of Paradise”, The New York Times, Jan. 8, 2004.
Frances Sorensen, Interview, WPS1 Radio, NY, Transister Radio #2, 2004.
David Frankel, Article: Photo Play: John Dugdale & John Kelly, Aperture 173, Winter 2003, 66-79.
Steve Wiecking, Article: “A Case Of Her: John Kelly Is Joni Mitchell—And She Couldn’t Be Happier”, Seattle Weekly, Sept. 10, 2003.