William Kelly’s ‘Markers Along the Way’ at the Shepparton Art Gallery

Journalist John Lewis will be opening a new exhibition on Friday 21 July at 6.00pm at the Shepparton Art Gallery titled, “Markers Along the Way: An exhibition of prints by William Kelly”.

The exhibition, organised by the gallery, displays a collection of prints created by Nathalia based artist William Kelly from 1965 to 2005. It covers themes including still life, the human figure, informal portraits, images from theatre and images referencing social concerns.

Printmaking is often thought of as a ‘democratic’ or publicly accessible media because of its ability to produce multiple prints, making it easily accessible to the public. This suits Kelly, who philosophically marries his commitment to social and humanist concerns with his love of and commitment to art. Master printer Larry Rawling recently commented: “Kelly was the first artist to make screen prints by drawing on textured acetate allowing them to have a more direct drawing quality”.

While being known principally as a painter and draughtsman, Kelly’s prints have quietly travelled across the globe and achieved significant international recognition. He has created prints on four continents, printed in almost every medium and on almost every surface. His exhibition ‘Markers Along the Way’ includes hand coloured and hand worked prints, woodblock and lino prints, etchings and aquatints, dry point, stone and plate lithographs, screen prints, electrostatic/photocopy, plan printing, digital, dot matrix and inkjet prints. 

As John Lewis recently wrote in the Shepparton News: “Bill Kelly operates on a global level, but lives and works in a village”. How lucky we are that the village he has chosen is in our neighborhood.

The exhibition will open in conjunction with “Godwin Bradbeer – ‘The Metaphysical Body’ 1970 – 2005” being organised by the gallery. 

William Kelly will talk about his work at a seminar at the gallery on Saturday 22 July from 10.30am to 11.15am. On the same day artist Godwin Bradbeer will discuss his work which will be on display at the gallery from 21 July to 3 September. Gold coin admission, Morning tea is included. RSVP to the gallery on 5832 9861.

William Kelly will also be special guest speaker at the next Friends of the Gallery Coffee Morning on Wednesday 2 August at 10.30am.