it’s my bonerverse and you’re all living in it

Kelly Schmader is a visual and performance artist residing in Chicago, IL.

Schmader studied studio art at Oberlin College in Ohio and completed her Master of Arts Management at Columbia College Chicago 2019. Her 2-dimensional work includes paper and digital/photoshop collage. Inspired by photographer Laurie Simmons, fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, and author Francesca Lia Block, she uses collage to explore the American pop cultural landscape. She is especially interested in the way the internet and the manipulation of digital photography can be used as a new art medium; one that expresses the collective subconscious internet users share through repeated imagery, memes, and Google image search. Her visual vocabulary includes pink, the desert, lizards, bones, skeletons, eyeballs, the moon, fruit, and the geometric. She strives for her pieces to evoke the divinely surreal.

Schmader has performed and created as an AFAB (assigned female at birth) drag queen, going by the performance name Kelly Boner. Her rich history with Chicago drag began in 2013; since joining the community, she was executive producer of Lipstick City, a short fashion film starring season 9 Rupaul’s Drag Race contestant Shea Couleé, released in 2016. She has worked as producer, assistant, graphic designer, and creative director for countless photoshoots, shows, and short films.

Boner has performed in Nightgowns, the acclaimed show hosted by Drag Race Season 9 winner Sasha Velour, and made her international debut at Drag Sugur in Reyjakvik, Iceland in June 2018. Her collage work is featured in Velour’s magazine Velour: the Drag Magazine, issue 3, also released as a bound book in 2018.

Press and Notable Appearances
Paper Magazine, 12 Stunning Spreads From Sasha Velour's New Art Book.
Chicago Magazine, Kelly Boner Curates Drag as Fine Art.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiki in the Commons
Wussy Magazine, Vol. 6
Sixty Inches from Center, Fulfilling Fantasies: Contemporary Chicago Drag Works at Hokin Gallery

Columbia College Chicago Features:
Featured Artist Friday for ShopColumbia
Student Spotlight for Business and Entrepreneurship
Digital Drag with Kelly Schmader for Business and Entrepreneurship