Kim Mackell, a Blackheath resident, was a life-long artist but was most prolific in the 1970s and 80s.
Mr Mackell, 64, mysteriously disappeared from the Upper Mountains town in December last year, having alighted from a cab near his home after a trip to Sydney.
Despite widespread searching by family and friends, no trace was found of him until a bushwalker stumbled upon his remains near Shipley Road four months later.
As a tribute, a retrospective exhibition of Mr Mackell’s work is being held at Rex-Livingstone Art + Objects at 182 Katoomba St, Katoomba.
Mr Mackell’s niece, Hillier Windsor, said the exhibition was a fitting farewell to her uncle. She said many old friends who owned Mr Mackell’s works had lent them for the exhibition. There were also many others that had been in his Blackheath home.
The gallery notes: “In between meals and with tobacco as a constant companion, Kim Mackell made a lot of art in a relatively short time. He completed most of the works in this exhibition over a period of 15 years, from around the mid 1970s to the end of the 1980s. Brought together for the first time, it is an astonishing collection.
“We invite you to come and enjoy Kim’s work, to remember a truly subversive artist and a thoroughly decent human being, and to reflect on the world as seen through his eyes. “
Kim Mackell (1952 – 2016), The Tigers of Kitsch are Wiser than the Horses of Instruction, paintings, drawings and prints from the 1970s to the early 1990s is on until October 9.
