Deborah Kelly

Throughout the 1980s, Kelly worked as a cartoonist. Her work was published widely and exhibited alongside well-known cartoonists including Kaz Cooke and Judy Horacek in Out of Line, 1991. In 1988, she began making work for galleries alongside a growing public art practice. Kelly was a key member of the activist collective boat-people.org, which projected imagery onto the Sydney Opera House in 2001. Footage of the guerilla act was later shown in galleries. In 2016, Kelly completed a Masters of Fine Art at UNSW Art & Design, resulting in her graduating exhibition Scenes from the Death of Books at UNSW Galleries. Kelly's current major project, Creation, is a new religion of revolutionary and sacred ideas, rituals, imagery and events.

Deborah Kelly (born 1962) is a contemporary Australian artist known for her eclectic, uplifting, socially-engaged and activist art. Her artistic practice ranges from collages to posters, postcards, banners, billboards, photography, installation, performance, events, video and drawing. Kelly regularly collaborates and contributes to collectives to address political issues including LGBTIQ+ rights, asylum for refugees and climate change. Her work is included in major national and international exhibitions and events. These include: All About Women, Sydney Opera House (2022); The National, Sydney (2021); the Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2014); the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece (2014); and the Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2008).

Deborah Kelly was born on Wurundjeri/Boon Wurrung Country, in Narrm (Melbourne) in 1962. She currently lives in Sydney.