Still from Kelly Mark, “108 Leyton Ave,” 2014, single-channel split screen video with sound (photo courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery and the estate of Kelly Mark)
Canadian conceptual artist Kelly Mark died in Toronto on February 21, 2025.
Born in Welland, Ont., Mark worked in a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, photography, audio, video, performance, text work, tattoos and mail art.
“Kelly spent her career bending words to her will, playing with irony and nuance, recontextualizing the way we thought of time, love, life, loneliness, cats, death. Always with a subtle twist of the knife that would make you laugh as much as it makes you think,” reads a message from the team at Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto.
“Losing Kelly is painful for anyone who knew her, and while some small shade of comfort can be taken in the art she leaves behind, it pales in comparison to the enormous character and energy that was Kelly Mark.”
Mark's work has been shown in galleries across Canada and around the world, and her work is found in public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq and Musee D'Art Contemporain, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, U.K.
She held a bachelor of fine arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and a diploma from the Dundas Valley School of Art.
“Following a final Super Bowl party last month with a small group of close friends, Kelly opted for Medical Assistance In Dying,” according to a CBC story by Mark's friend and fellow artist Dave Dyment.
“With characteristic gallows humour, her final work was released later that day. It is a text piece that reads: "I DON'T WANNA PLAY THIS GAME ANYMORE. I'M TAKING MY BALL AND GOING HOME.'”
Source: CBC, Olga Korper Gallery
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