Baggs McKelvey lives, works, and teaches in the Chattanooga area. She is an interdisciplinary artist working in installation, video, sound, and multi-media objects. She has taught at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga State Community College, Lee University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Southern Illinois University of Carbondale. Her work has been exhibited widely. Most recently, commissioned to create a site-specific installation, Indigo, at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN (on view through February 2022).

In addition to exhibiting her artwork, McKelvey is the mother of three and Managing Director of the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance, a non-profit arts organization focused on sculpture and sculptors.

My work is a concept-driven investigation of discarded, mass-produced, and crowd-sourced materials used to explore the poetic, sensory, and formal aspects of material and space. Materials and media are chosen for their inherent meaning, becoming the primary vehicle used to create installations, mixed media, collage, and relief artworks. Environments are built, consumer objects are placed in the landscape, and organic forms are chosen and then subverted by the materials used. Each artwork aims to seduce and captivate its viewers. Aesthetic qualities act as a hook leading to immersion while humor, whimsy, curiosity, and a sense of play help inform my work.