“Collaborate” is not a two-person show, but a show by two people.

Jim Kelly and John Latham Knapp both worked on each piece in the new show at Buoy Gallery in Kittery, Maine, and on the whole installation. It’s up through Aug. 17.

Kelly is known for action painting with a street art influence, beginning with a photograph, while Knapp focuses on archetypal form in painting and sculpture, incorporating found objects and the arte povera movement.

These two styles go together remarkably well, with common themes of urgency, simplicity, fluidity, spontaneity and accessibility, which is ideal because neither gets credit for his individual contributions in this show. It’s true collaboration, demanding they let go of ego.

“There’s big ego in art,” said Kelly, who lives in Portland. “You’ve got to set that aside to get anything done. That’s not easy for everybody to do.”

“You have to be a certain kind of person and a certain kind of artist not to have an ego,” said Knapp, a Seacoast resident, in a separate interview.

The benefits are getting outside of one’s own head and informally sharing ideas, resulting in unexpected work that neither would have come up with on his own.

There was no set format, but one of the artists would begin a piece and they would alternate work so that it evolved until they decided it was complete. Each artist was allowed to alter the piece so that it could end up entirely different from any original intention.

Kelly considers their process akin to tagging each other’s work.

“You have to obliterate the idea that each effort has permanence,” he said.

They would work together for a few hours, spending just five to 10 minutes on one piece at a time, he said. They used fast application and quick drying media, like thick graphite, to keep the process moving as well as inexpensive canvas alternatives, such as drop cloth and cardboard.

“There has to be lightness. You have to take your work with non-heaviness,” Kelly said.

Both tend to take an intellectual rather than emotional approach to art, Kelly said, which also helps them be less precious about it.

Cardboard covers two walls of the gallery, rounding a corner near the entrance so that it resembles a large box. The two friends have painted graffiti-style symbols and language over it, in mostly black and white. It reads, “Eat it Raw,” among other, vaguer things. There is an underlying bridge-like pattern, reinforcing the urban, shantytown feel.

Bold black outlines are carried throughout the show, as are recognizable shapes and distinct sections. There is even a boat and hints of landscapes, but the work is mostly abstract. They kept to a basic set of colors, for the most part, uniting the room.

It works well in the industrial setting of the gallery, but unfortunately, they did not use the open space for more sculptural work.

Though the work is for sale, it’s untitled to keep it indistinct.
Kelly said the show was more about the process than the pieces. Knapp said something similar.

“It’s like you’re doing an exercise. It doesn’t matter. It’s about the experience,” he said.

The two artists have been occasionally working together for about five years.

“It’s given me a freedom and expressiveness that’s been very helpful,” Kelly said.

Buoy is at 2 Government St., Kittery, Maine, 207-450-2402, www.buoygallery.org.