Kelly Burns is a self-taught, New York City–based artist whose physical and digital works exist between sculptural collage and stop-motion animation. Working with found objects and a warm sense of dark humor, he assembles pieces quickly and intentionally unrefined, treating imperfection as essential to the work and to a life spent making art. His work explores ambition, isolation and uncertainty, and the tension between the magical and the absurd.
In 2003, Burns self-published I NY – New York Street Art, a collection of photographs and graphic work that launched with a live collaborative installation at The New Museum. In 2021, he entered the Web3 art space, where much of his practice and community have since been based, creating ongoing collaborative projects and collections. His work has been exhibited at Momenta Art, White Columns and the New Museum in New York, and at RGBMTL in Montreal.
pink man, a performance action from the summer of 1999, is among his earliest documented works.In 2006, he photographed and filmed the “Deitch Projects Art Parade”, documenting the artwork of its participants.walk, a 2010 environment built from styrofoam and plastics with text, reflects on “going out just to be out”.In the Web3 space, he made Finch & Spirit using DeluxePaint 2 in DOSBox, in which, in his words, “ghost-monster is taken aback by fearless, loving finch”. In April 2024, he photographed and animated a gathering of digital artists, including Lorna Mills, at the Roxy Hotel in Manhattan, released as Manifesting Kiszkiloszki to NFTNYC in 2025 on objkt.com.
