Kelly Kozma: Watch Me Backflip
May 2 –  June 1, 2025

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, May 2 • 6-8PM
RSVP here*
*Appreciated but not required

Paradigm Gallery + Studio is pleased to present Watch Me Backflip, a solo exhibition featuring the work of mixed media and fibers artist Kelly Kozma. Watch Me Backflip embraces ideas of reusing material, interconnectedness, and the significance of the smallest interaction on a much larger environment. Entering her 14th year working with Paradigm, Kozma will be unveiling a massive culmination documenting her career and process-intensive work. The artist is celebrating her personal relationships, archiving methods, and resilience with a massive 22-foot-wide installation comprised of 35,000 hand-stitched circles cut from various repurposed materials. The cosmic work titled Iguana & Myrrh, Magma & Reef, consists of everyday objects like greeting cards, food packaging, and thread expertly woven and given new life as bursts of color and pattern in the largest scale the artist has ever attempted. Kozma is purposefully engaging in a minimal-waste practice where even paper scraps and loose threads from the installation will find new life within over 20 mixed media works that will call to the large assemblage. As she stitches these lovingly collected pieces, Kozma creates connections between the people in her life and the objects she interacts with, inspiring mindfulness against overconsumption and emotional apathy. 

For more than a decade, Kozma has been recognizing the beauty that comes in often overlooked ephemera, like the encouraging messages from cough drop wrappers or the shimmer of toothpaste packaging. Piece by piece, she saves any colorful or textured box that she encounters, even though most are expected to be discarded after their original use.

*Please email info@paradigm-gallery.com if you wish to be added to Kelly Kozma's digital collector preview list for her upcoming exhibition, or submit your request HERE.*

In the early days, she did not have a project in mind for her scraps, but she was driven by the urge to resurrect these remnants and explore the potential they unknowingly hold. Over the years, these collections accumulated in her studio, filling jars, drawers, and shelves, patiently waiting for the right time to be useful again. As the jars built up, so did the momentum in Kozma’s creativity as she let go of practical limitations and followed her instinct as she decided to embark on a mammoth project in 2022. Circles of cut paper were collected in groups; groups of circles were threaded together to make squares; squares were patched together to make a quilt until all panels covered the floor of Kozma’s studio three years later. All of that gathering, cutting, arranging, and stitching precedes a sort of personal pinnacle that marks a new chapter in Kozma’s career. She states, “This show is an embodiment of everything that has led to this moment: the good, the bad, and the scary. It has all been a part of me, and that’s why it works.” Kozma highlights her materials as catalogs of her daily interactions, like drinking her favorite soft drinks or folding paper stars with her family. Visitors cannot deny the meticulous nature of the work and the obvious labor of love that each piece in the exhibition exemplifies. Each is a compression of time that has taught Kozma patience, discipline, and how to trust the creative process. As she sews, she can meditate on the individuals who in some way or another contributed to her work, whether it is the friend who mailed a holiday card to her or the individual who printed the CMYK test strip on the bottom of the cereal box.  In Watch Me Backflip, Kozma is calling for connection and the convalescence of being seen by others. Like a conduit, she reenergizes forgotten and discarded scraps to combat the epidemic of trash and isolation that is prevalent in the current times. 

Although Kozma’s individual skills are extraordinary, she wants to remind visitors that the installation could not have existed without her community, near and far. She hopes visitors will gather and inspire others to follow their own creative passions, even if it’s just a small idea, because it can lead to something much grander.

*Please email info@paradigm-gallery.com if you wish to be added to Kelly Kozma's digital collector preview list for her upcoming exhibition, or submit your request HERE.*

Kelly Kozma: Watch Me Backflip will be on view on the first floor of the Paradigm Arts Building (12 N 3rd St) from May  2 through June 1, 2025, with a public opening reception on Friday, May 2nd from 6–8pm.

This exhibition is presented as part of Paradigm’s year-long 15th anniversary celebration.

About Kelly Kozma
Kelly Kozma is a mixed-media and fiber artist who uses the meditative process of hand embroidery as a therapeutic way of healing. Kozma is represented by Paradigm Gallery + Studio and has participated in group and solo exhibitions in Philadelphia, as well as in art fairs during Armory Week and Art Basel in Miami. Her work has been featured on catalog covers, in international art and travel magazines such as Afar & Create Magazine, as well as many online publications. Her work has been purchased for many permanent collections including at Temple University and Capital One. She has a detached studio at her home just outside of Philadelphia and enjoys the fact that her young son can create his own masterpieces alongside her while she works.

About Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Paradigm Gallery + Studio® was established in 2010 by co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston. The gallery exhibits meaningful, process-intense contemporary artwork by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world, with a focus on Philadelphia. In 2023, Paradigm moved locations and opened its new 5-story, 7,000 sq. ft. home, The Paradigm Arts Building, in Old City, Philadelphia. Open to the public, the building boasts multiple floors of exhibition space, integrated in-house design and printmaking, a dedicated events floor, and art advisory offices. With this, Chen and McCorriston expanded their vision for the greater Philadelphia arts community. The gallery is at the heart of this vision, anchoring Paradigm’s overall mission of increasing access to the commercial art world, supporting artists and advancing their careers, and collaborating with like-minded partners to build a more equitable, sustainable arts economy for all.

EXHIBITION HOURS
Thursdays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Fridays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays • 11 AM – 6 PM
Sundays • 11 AM – 5 PM
And by appointment outside of hours.

MEDIA CONTACT
For all inquiries contact info@paradigm-gallery.com

LOCATION
12 N. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

SOCIAL MEDIA
Instagram: @ParadigmGS
TikTok: ParadigmGallery
Facebook: facebook.com/paradigmgallery

*Please email info@paradigm-gallery.com if you wish to be added to Kelly Kozma's digital collector preview list for her upcoming exhibition, or submit your request HERE.*