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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Michael Kelly

1998
Rick Amor

soft ground etching on paper., edition 7/7 (sheet: 37.1 cm x 28.0 cm, image: 30.2 cm x 16.3 cm)

Michael Kelly (b. 1956) graduated from Darlinghurst’s National Art School in 1985 and became an art teacher. In the early 1990s, he held his first solo exhibitions in Melbourne. A few years later, he began going out out with Rick Amor, Andrew Southall and Phil Davey on their regular Friday painting excursions. In 2003 the Friday Group marked its tenth anniversary with the touring exhibition 500 Fridays; but when Kelly left to live in Sydney, the group disbanded. Kelly has had about a dozen solo exhibitions of works that Amor characterises as ‘spiritual landscapes, with great feeling’. He was represented by a gallery in Woollahra, but concentrates, now, on plein air painting in the streets of Darlinghurst, and making books available to people living without homes in that area. Nightworks, an exhibition of his work in 2012, featured paintings of people experiencing homelessness and included Footpath Library. Kelly has spent many nights walking the streets of Sydney. ‘Like Christopher Brennan, the Sydney poet and scholar influenced by the French Symbolist poets,’ he wrote, “All night I have walked and my heart was deep awake”.’ Amor’s former Sydney gallerist, Tony Palmer, commented that he had invested Kelly with a Jacobean air in his print of 1998.

Gift of the artist 2005. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Rick Amor/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Rick Amor (age 50 in 1998)

Michael Kelly

Subject professions

Visual arts and crafts

Donated by

Rick Amor (21 portraits)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency