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John Kelly, Alien face I, 2005, oil on copper plate, 6.5 x 9cm | | |
Niagara Galleries
would like to welcome you to
JOHN KELLY
PROJECT x 2
There was an Englishman, and Australian and an Irishman...
(The Venice Project)
Well, if I were you, I wouldn't start from here.
(The Melbourne Project)
Please join us for opening drinks on
Tuesday 8 November 2005 at 6.00pm
JOHN KELLY
Renowned for his paintings of Dobell's cows, John Kelly explores Australian history and art history through idiosyncratic symbols and myths. The cow imagery stems from a specific story about William Dobell's employment in WWII. Dobell was one of a group of artists who made papier-mache cows for strategic placement around defence bases. The desire was to have Japanese pilots believe the area was nothing but benign farmland. In his work, Kelly tracks these lost works by Dobell, inserting them into Australian art history. In more recent work, Kelly has focused on branding and logos. Prominent symbols of corporate entities form the basis of abstract drawings and paintings. An historical leap reveals the connection between corporate design, twentieth-century abstraction and the history of Australian art.
John Kelly completed his Masters of Arts in painting in 1995 and studied at the Slade School of Art, London, in 1996. He was awarded a Samstag scholarship in 1997. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Australia and overseas and was selected to exhibit his now famous sculpture Cow up a tree in the prestigious Champs de la Sculpture II on the Champs Elysees in 1999.
John lives and works in Europe. |
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