Kelly Mark
Mighty Niagara Film Fest 2025 is proud to present select video works by the late conceptual artist Kelly Mark, Glow Video Series (2005) and Prime Time (2000) at the Niagara Artists Centre.
Born in Welland, Ontario, and a longtime friend of the Niagara Artists Centre, Kelly remained closely connected to the Niagara region while mostly living in Toronto.
Working across sculpture, video, installation, drawing, photography, sound, multiples, performance, and public interventions, Kelly transformed everyday gestures and routines into reflections on time, labour, and human experience. A brilliant and devoted artist, she understood media and its influence, shaping a disciplined, endurance-driven art practice that was critical, perceptive, and seamlessly engaged within the absurdities of daily life.
Glow Video Series and Prime Time are two video works by Kelly Mark that turn everyday media experiences into reflections on perception and time. Glow Video Series transforms television footage into flickering light and colour, highlighting the sculptural and sensory qualities of moving images while leaving narrative and genre behind. Viewers may try to trace familiar cues, if not strictly illicit themes, that have been reduced merely to tone and rhythm. Prime Time records two hours of channel surfing, a wandering habit as personal study of peaked attention and drift. Together, the works reveal Mark’s gift for making ordinary actions resonate, connecting shared experience with her distinct taste and humour. The vintage living room setup in the NAC Microcinema becomes part of the installation itself, a sunken plush space complicit in taking it all in.
Kelly Mark exhibited widely in Canada and internationally, including at the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her impact is further recognized in Everything & Nothing, a multi-site survey currently hosted by Olga Korper Gallery, spanning nine Toronto art venues, on display until early 2026.
Media provided by Vtape Distribution.
GLOW SERIES (2005)
ft Porn, Romance, Kung Fu, Suspense
Multi-channel video installation. 15 minutes looped, silent
CRT televisions, dvd player, RF modulator, RCA cable, coaxial cables & splitters
Part of the Glow Video Series in which the artist used television content, in this case a hard core porn movie, as a simple source material for reflected light installations. Series includes: Horror, Suspense, Romance, Porn, Kung-Fu & also Commercial Space which was made at a later date.
Plate Glass Gallery at NAC
12 Nov-20 Dec 2025
PRIME TIME (2000)
Single-channel video, 2 hours, with sound
Prime Time documents two hours of Mark’s channel-surfing habits on a single night, presenting a psychological snapshot of herself and using television as a mirror of everyday experience.
Microcinema at NAC
13 Nov - 20 Dec 2025
Wed to Fri 12-5PM + Sat 12-4PM