Illustrated page 190 Fix, The Art And Life Of Felix Kelly, Donald Bassett Darrow Press

Exhibited: Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, UK 22 October - 9 November, 1968 Cat no. 3

Kennedy Galleries, New York, USA 2 October - 24 October, 1970

The Isaac Delgado Museum of Art New Orleans, USA 6 November - 30 November, 1970 Cat no. 18

Clune Galleries, Sydney, NSW, Australia Circa mid 1970s

Felix Kelly 1914 - 1994 was born in Epsom, Auckland but left New Zealand as a young man in 1914. Heading for the bright lights of London, Kelly worked a graphic designer during the 1930, moving to stage and interior design in the 1950s. All the while, Kelly painted in what was to become a distinctively personal, surrealist style. His architectural portraits, both interiors and exteriors, were enlivened by touches of the romantic and the whimsical. Kelly exhibited alongside Lucian Freud and Julian Trevelyan, and on one occasion Frances Hodgkins. Although he never returned to New Zealand; throughout his life, he painted a somewhat reinvented and fantastical homeland.

Kelly's work is rarely seen at auction, Steamboat House, Mississippi is the first example to appear on the New Zealand market since 2004. Two other works from this series are hung in the R. W. Norton Public Gallery in Louisiana. A retrospective A Kiwi at Brideshead opened at The New Dowse, Lower Hutt 13th June and runs until 27th September, 2009.