Deborah Kelly :: biography at Design and Art Australia Online

Deborah Kelly b. 1962 Melbourne, VIC

Artist (Mixed Media Artist)

Deborah Kelly began making socially engaged artwork in 1983. Her collaborative projects include boat-people.org and the prize-winning public artwork series Hey, hetero!, created with Tina Fiveash. Her work Beware of the God - commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and first shown in 2005 - was reiterated for the 2008 Singapore Biennale.

Keywords: Public Art , Sculpture , Collage , Video Installation , Political , Collaborative

Talk | Version history | Updated Oct. 19, 2011 | Created Jan. 1, 2008

Name

Deborah Kelly

Birth date

1962

Birth place

Melbourne, VIC

Gender

Female

Roles

Artist (Mixed Media Artist)

Residence

1990- 1991 Adelaide, SA
c.1962- Melbourne, VIC
2000- Sydney, NSW

Other Occupation

creative director
editor
print designer
art director

Keywords:

Public Art
Sculpture
Collage
Video Installation
Political
Collaborative

Active Period

1983-

Is Indigenous

Copyright

Viscopy

Biography

Artist Deborah Kelly was born in Melbourne in 1962. She began making socially engaged artwork in 1983 and has exhibited across Australia and internationally.

Earlier in her career Kelly worked as a cartoonist; in 1985 she was represented in ‘The Heidelberg School Picnic’, the State Library of Victoria exhibition of the work of contemporary Australian cartoonists. In 1991 she participated in ‘Out of Line’ with Jane Cafarella, Trudy Clutterbok, Kaz Cooke , Bronwyn Halls, Judy Horacek , Kathleen McCann, Nicole McKinnon, Joan Rosser and Jo Waite . Her cartooning work was primarily made for print media rather than exhibition and was published extensively around Australia from 1981 to 1988.

The media through which she worked became increasingly varied after 1989. Her photomedia project Hey, hetero! (2001), created in collaboration with Tina Fiveash , has been displayed on bus shelters, billboards, screens, magazines, newspapers, and text books in Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington, Glasgow, Berlin, Minneapolis and Claremont. Her 2009 work Tank Man Tango: a Tiananmen Memorial was a distributed dancing memorial for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and was performed in over 20 cities and towns around the world.

At the 2008 Singapore Biennale, her work involved projections onto clouds over the city; this was a reiteration of her Museum of Contemporary Art commissioned work, Beware of the God , first shown in 2005.

Kelly is a founding member of boat-people.org, a group of Sydney-based art and media workers who collaborate on public work about issues of race, history and borders.

Kelly also began creating gallery-based artworks in 1988 and continued this practice in parallel to her public work. Solo shows in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 featured collage, video and installation work.

Kelly lives and works in Sydney and Melbourne.

Writers:: Kelly, Deborah
Date written:
Last updated:

associate of

Zehra Ahmed

1980

Artist, Artist (Performance Artist), Artist (Video Artist)

associate of

Kaz Cooke

1962

Artist (Screen Artist), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)

associate of

Jane Cafarella

1957

Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)

associate of

Judy Horacek

1961

Artist (Printmaker), Artist (Cartoonist / Illustrator)

associate of

Date: 2009-
Medium
Keywords:: Public , Political , Collage

Documentation of billboard 3000x4500mm

Beware of the God

Date: 2005

Ongoing

Hey, hetero!

Date: 2001

Created in collaboration with Tina Fiveash.

Collections

Artbank, Sydney, NSW

Citations:

(1991), Out of Line
Kelly, Deborah, Joan Kerr Archive, (Email correspondence 2001-07-01 Place: National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT)
Ee Wong, May, "Trojan ponies: interview with Deborah Kelly", Singapore Biennale Review
The artists own records
Dean, Bec, (11 September 2008), "Beware of the God: now more than ever", Broadsheet magazine, (feature article & photos Place: Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia) http://www.cacsa.org.au/cvapsa/2008/7_bs_37_3/37_3.html
Clements, Tracey, (25 April 2007), Beauty Killed the Beast, (review and image Place: Sydney Morning Herald, Metro section p. 32)
Hopfl, Professor Heather, (11 September 2008), "Sacred Heart", Culture and Organization Journal, (essay Place: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK)
Vanni, llaria, "Deborah Kelly's gods, monsters and probable histories", Artlink Magazine, (2008, Vol 28 # 3)
Carew, Jenny, (1985), The Heidelberg School Picnic : An exhibition of contemporary Australian cartoons, illustrations and humorous creations, (Place: State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC)

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Deborah Kelly b. 1962 Melbourne, VIC

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