John McKenzie

Painter

John “Gurri“ Kelly, is an aboriginal Australian artist , who’s art depicts stories from his home and people the Dunghutti Nation, Kempsey north coast New South Wales (NSW).
With every brush stroke, John Kelly imparts his own special brand of cultural knowledge.
When Gurri talks, you instantly know that art and culture are two things he feels very passionately about. In fact, to Gurri they are as one.

“My fathers greatest words to me where, Be my own Mentor not my own Tormentor”

“My father told me to paint my surrealism; to paint what was in my mind,” he says. “I never draw anything beforehand. I visualise it, and then I approach the canvas and just attack it.”

Through his art, Gurri has been able to express his passion and love for his culture and traditions in a way that has brought him personal satisfaction as well as success and recognition.

“I started painting around nine years ago,” he says. “My mother was, and still is, a painter and my father was a very cultural man. I listened to the old people and gained some of their knowledge in the way of symbols and the way of the land. “

“I carry on the beliefs of my father that culture is the way of tomorrow, by passing it onto my sons and daughters and my grandchildren, hoping that it is dreamtime tomorrow not a nightmare tomorrow”

Gurri is my name i am a culturally minded dunghutti man as we look beyond these stories, that became paintings a journey of dreamtime stories that came through me, for them to be seen and