John Kelly

Painter, sculptor and printmaker John Kelly was born in Bristol, UK in 1965 and immigrated with his family to Australia in the same year. In 1985 he received a Bachelor of Arts from RMIT University, Melbourne, where he also completed his Master of Arts in 1995. As a winner of the 1995 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, he travelled to London to study as an Affiliate Student at the Slade School of Art from 1996 to 1997. John Kelly has exhibited in Australia and the United Kingdom since 1988. He is best known for his paintings and large sculptures of William Dobell’s cows, which were papier-mâché figures used during WWII to confuse enemy aircrafts of the location of the Australian airbases. He currently lives with his family in Cork, Ireland.