Thomas Kelley: NK

Norman Kelley is a draftsman who likes to draw on buildings. Most recently, NK has projected their line work onto the walls of four prestigious institutions: The American Academy in Rome, The Architectural League of New York, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and most recently, the Chicago Architecture Biennial. At each venue, the act of drawing was the event and the drawing itself is the architecture. A closer look reveals NK’s interest in context—the drawing a visual essay on the history of the site. Like a Bridget Riley painting, the drawings are designed to mask their precise beginnings and confound the observer into collapsing the gap between the analog and the digital.