Kirk Fanelly (American, b. 1975)
Vanda Orchid (Pink), December 2020
Nine color screenprint
18 x 12 in.
Gallery Purchase
“Vanda Orchid (Pink)” is a print of an array of pink orchids, originally created with inlaid cut paper. The magenta color of the flowers contrasts heavily with the stark black background, causing them to appear almost three-dimensional, bursting off the page. The green stems extend out and run off the bottom of the page through long curved lines, juxtaposing the pattern of uneven, squiggly circles that form the flowers, clustered together in the center. Large, overlapping pink petals play with the idea of space on the page, and purple lines form the shadows. The work is reminiscent of pop art — with its bright colors, solid background, and use of linework and hard edges to establish dimension — but it is tamer and more muted, a reflection of its time: December 2020. It is calm yet bold, and the sporadically placed buds carry a sense of timid hopefulness, possibility, and new beginnings.
Fanelly created the Botanicals series in 2017, focusing exclusively on plants; he said he found himself “increasingly reflecting how wonderfully bizarre the natural world is rather than just mining the human narrative”1 and sought a change from human subject matter. The body of work has evolved over time, but all original works are inlaid cut paper — producing meticulously intricate pieces — and the print editions are printed under the direction of artist and printmaker Dominick Rapone. Fanelly depicts flora in all different stages, highlighting the complexity of nature (as opposed to simply its aesthetic beauty while in bloom): flower buds; leaves changing colors; and piles of wood, chopped down.
Fanelly currently resides in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1999, he received a BA in Visual Art from Brown University. He has also attended a formative fellowship at Yale. Fanelly has shown work in exhibitions across the East Coast, including Appalachian State Turchin Center, Winthrop University Rutledge Gallery, Artspace (Richmond, VA), and The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem, NC). His Botanicals series was exhibited in 2019 at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, and from July to December 2020 virtually at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden.
[1] Kirk Fanelly’s Vibrant Inlaid Cut Paper Works | Hi-Fructose Magazine
Isabel Smith ’24