Déirdre Kelly obtained Master of Arts in Printmaking from Wimbledon School of Art in 1984, becoming a member of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and since has been exhibiting work regularly in UK, France & Italy. Her work is held in many public and private collections including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Tate Gallery Library, London, University of Leeds Library, U.K. Luciano Benetton Collection, Italy, N.I.V.A.L, Dublin, Ireland, National Gallery of Canada Library, Canada, and M.O.M.A. Library, New York, U.S.A.

Kelly was founding director and curator of the Hardware Gallery, London (1986-2003) specialising in printmaking and artist’s books exhibitions. Hardware was at the centre of the U.K. artist’s book revival of the late 1980s and 1990s. Its artists’ book collection is now housed in the British Library and documentation on Hardware Gallery activities is part of Tate Archive at the Tate Britain, London.

Awards include a British Council Exchange residency at Museu da Gravura, Curitiba, Brazil 1994, the Whatman Paper Prize 1988, the Atlantis Paper Prize 1987, and the Sericol Purchase Prize 1986. In 2012 she was made a fellow of the Ballinglen Visual Arts Foundation, Ireland and held residencies in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2024. In 2021 she became a Companion of John Ruskin's Guild of St. George and recently exhibited at his house ‘Brantwood’ in the Lake District.

Currently lives and works in Venice, Italy.

Artist Curator at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venezia

Top Tip

Inspire and be inspired. Select strong images representative of your work, following the traditions of printmaking, experimentation and exploration of ideas within the widest parameters.