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SHELTER IN PLACE
Keliy Anderson-Staley

April 21 - 28, 2018


This will be the first presentation of Keliy Anderson-Staley’s temporary sculptural structure, Shelter in Place. The simple structure, sheathed in original tintype portraits of hundreds of Houstonians, will be installed in an outdoor space under the train shed at the Silos.

Each tintype plate is a powerful portrait of an individual and the entire piece a portrait of the broader community. The structure is an expression of the strength and resilience of Houston’s communities, but also our collective fragility and vulnerability in the face of natural and environmental catastrophe.
Although the project has been in development for a number of years, the project has taken on new significance in the wake of Harvey, and many of the portraits have been made since the storm.

Shelter in Place was funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Anderson-Staley would also like to thank DiverseWorks and the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts at the University of Houston, both of which hosted tintype portrait events in conjunction with this project.


Keliy Anderson-Staley


Keliy Anderson-Staley’s work has been exhibited at the Akron Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, California Museum of Photography, Morris Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, and Ogden Museum, Southeast Museum of Photography, and her work is in the collections of Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Comer Collection at UT Dallas, Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, and the Portland Museum of Art (Maine). Anderson-Staley’s projects have been funded by grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, George and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation and the Puffin Foundation. Her book of tintype portraits, On a Wet Bough, was published in 2014 by Waltz Books. She lives in Houston, TX where she is an assistant professor of photography and digital media at the University of Houston. She is represented by Catherine Edelman Gallery.