Lines of Inquiry: The Architectural Drawings of Brian Kelly

This exhibition, premiering in the Kibel Gallery, showcases more than 30 drawings by Brian Kelly, Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Maryland. The drawings fall into two broad categories. Referential drawings serve as personal theaters of memory by recording encounters with architectural, urban and landscape artifacts. Speculative drawings are theatrical displays of the imagination, musings about places that do not yet exist.

Most of the pieces in this exhibition were produced between 1981 and 2010. The majority of these drawings are field sketches made in situ, while other drawings were produced in the studio as the culmination of numerous field sketches.

The drawings are presented in their original size, typically that of the sketchbook, watercolor block or drawing pad upon which they were made. The lines of inquiry shared by the work sketch a pedagogy of the city and the landscape. Drawing served as the principal tool for extracting, recording and discerning the lessons of architecture, often by contrasting subjective initial impressions against prolonged observation, documentation and analysis.

Exhibition Credits

This exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from the Center for Architecture Design Research and Education (CADRE Corporation), the Kibel Gallery Fund and the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The exhibition was made reality by: Ronit Eisenbach, Kibel Gallery Chair; Christine Arnold and Michael Fischer, Exhibition Designers; Mercedes Afshar, Kibel Gallery Assistant; Thomas Swift, Shop Supervisor; Parlin Meyer, Jeff Gipson, Stanley Mathurin and Kevin Vandeman, Shop Assistants; Octavian Cretu, Anaconda Press.