Justine Kelley is a Filipino-American, Philadelphia-based printmaker, illustrator, and designer. She is inspired by vibrant colors, emotions, and the accidents that happen during the art-making process. Most of Kelley’s work is hand-drawn, infusing it with an honest, intimate quality. Her illustrations aim to explore the social barriers that exist between people to create new structures of meaning and connectivity. Kelley likens her art-making process to cooking—she uses the resources she has to feed the people she loves. Her goal is to synthesize emotion as a raw material and use it to create a magic funhouse mirror which reflects the world back at itself.

For her exhibition at Philadelphia International Airport, Kelley presents the Bella Vista neighborhood with an emphasis on the Italian Market, the nation’s oldest open-air market which spans 20 city blocks in South Philly. Bella Vista means “Beautiful Sight” in Italian. For many generations, this neighborhood has been home to a variety of immigrant communities, from Irish, Italian, and African descendants in the 1800s to Vietnamese, Korean, Cambodian, and Mexican communities settling in the 1900s. Having recently moved to South Philly, Kelley says, “I wanted to celebrate the abundance of food and fresh produce, colorful signage and typography, and bustling community that exist in the Italian Market and Bella Vista area, with much thanks to the shopkeepers who run their businesses and the neighbors who live here… If the path to one’s heart is through the stomach, then this place is an artery pumping vitality to the city, feeding us with nutritious foods and delicious sights. It’s a feast for all the senses. If I were to rename Bella Vista, it would be the Italian words for "Beautiful Sights, Sounds, Tastes, Smells, and Feelings”.

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