Deborah Kelly is one of Australia’s foremost political artists with a practice spanning three decades.
A new exhibition at the Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest, Bodies of Work, brings together artworks from the last 15 years of Deborah Kelly’s art practice. Kelly’s socially engaged practice challenges notions of gender, politics and relationships through collage, photography, animation, sculpture and performance.
“Working in and around collage, portraiture and animation, Deborah Kelly’s material practice involves both pillage and inversion of the western art canon, and mass-mediated tropes and images," said Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest director, Dr Lee-Anne Hall.
“The artist uses these means to question and to challenge global capital, public policy, religious authority, power and privilege.
“Throughout, her polemic is always nuanced and always approached with empathy, intellect and wit.”
This exhibition includes artworks produced for contexts and platforms within and beyond the gallery wall, such as the poster, the billboard, video projections, and documented citizen performance and activism.
Kelly’s interest in such formats reflects both her deep concern to engage all possible audiences, and a tandem career in the graphic arts and communication.
This is the first time Kelly’s artworks have been exhibited in such extensive survey format.
The artist has worked in collaboration with Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest Gallery, in selection of artworks representative of her larger body of work. In order to accommodate the large number of artworks in this survey, a partial rehang of the exhibition will take place late January 2016.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to view the major works of one of this country’s most significant artists.
The exhibition opens on Saturday, December 5 from 5-7pm. It runs until February 21, 2016.
The gallery is located at 86 River Road, Emu Plains. Call 4735 1100.
For more details on Bodies of Work, or the gallery, visit http://www.penrithregionalgallery.org/.
Working in and around collage, portraiture and animation, Deborah Kelly’s material practice involves both pillage and inversion of the western art canon, and mass-mediated tropes and images.
- Dr Lee-Anne Hall