Her Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Culture (University of Limerick [UL]) was completed under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Lawless (TCD) and Professor Carol Armstrong (Yale University).
Kelly's former academic posts and awards include: Research Fellow at CGWS, TCD (2013-2016); Language Bursary from the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris (2014); 3 x Irish Research Council New Foundations Awards (2012-14); Lecturing and Research Fellow in the History of Art and Visual Culture, UL (2012-13); Government of Ireland Scholar (2010-11), Fulbright Scholar in the Humanities and Visiting Researcher, Department of History of Art, Yale University (2010-11), Guest Lecturer and Tutor, UL (2008-2012) and UL Research Scholar (awarded 2008-2011, accepted 2008-2010).
She has curated four art exhibitions, two of which were research-led: ‘Familiar Faces: Works by Influential Women Artists from the Patrick J. Murphy Collection’ (co-curated 2008), and ‘Orientalism and the Female Gaze: The Helen Hooker O’Malley Collection’ (co-curated 2007), Bourn Vincent Gallery, Ireland.
Kelly has acted as an expert advisor and academic reviewer for international foundations, art collectors, museums, art auction houses, academic publications and governmental sectors.
Research Project/s and Development
Project 1: French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference.
As a part of this project, Kelly authored the first full-length book dedicated to French women Orientalist artists. She gathered primary documentation relating to seventy-two women artists whose works of art can be placed in the canon of French Orientalism between 1861 and 1956. These women were professional artists who practiced in France and the Maghreb region of North Africa particularly in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. On bringing these artists together for the first time and presenting close contextual analyses of works of art, attention is given to artists’ cross-cultural interactions with painted/sculpted representations of the Maghreb. Kelly places emphases on the gendered gaze, which entails a discussion on women’s painted perspectives of and contacts with Muslim women as well as various Maghrebi cultures and land—all the while remaining mindful of the subject position of the French artist and the problematic issues which can arise when discussing European-made ‘ethnographic’ scenes. Moreover, executed between 1861 and 1956, the works of art presented in Kelly research show influences of Modernism; therefore, she also pays close attention to progressive Realism and Naturalism in art and the Orientalist shift into Modernist subject matter and form. Through her research into French women Orientalists Kelly engages with important discussions on the crossing view of the historical female other with the cultural other, artistic hybridity and influence in art as well as the postcolonial response to French activities in colonial Algeria and the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco. On giving focus to women’s art and the impact of cross-cultural interchanges, Kelly's research rethinks Orientalism in French art.
Project 2: (Re)Mapping Orientalism in Art 1834-2024: Contemporary Women Artists from the Middle East and North Africa Unearthing New Meanings.
In this project Kelly is rethinking the term 'Orientalism'. The book looks beyond the purely European canon of historical Orientalist art objects to explore artistic responses to 'Orientalism' by contemporary women artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Kelly's approach creates new meanings for 'Orientalism' and it further contextualises art objects as being an important part of an ongoing, reciprocal socio-cultural dialogue between the global north and south. Responding to the current age of ‘post-postmodernism’, this will be the first book to conduct a comprehensive revision of Orientalism in the History of Art 1834-2024 through the lens of global histories of art, gender and transcultural theory. Kelly contends that this understated dialogue in art and visual culture can be harnessed and used in innovative ways to generate a positive and progressive exchange of ideas between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Project 3: Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies, Boole Library, University College Cork. Collaborator: C. Ó Doibhlin, Head of Research Collections, UCC.
Barbara Wright (1935–2019), Emerita Professor TCD and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur is the leading scholar on the French Orientalist artist E. Fromentin (1820-76). In 2019, Professor Wright donated her extensive Orientalist library holdings to UCC. Kelly is working with C. Ó Doibhlin on cataloguing and launching the collection.
Read: Mary Kelly, Crónán Ó Doibhlin, Barbara Wright, ‘Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies, Boole Library, University College Cork, Ireland: Legacy, the Collection and Impact’. Journal de L'Académie des Belles-Lettres, Sciences et Arts de La Rochelle, XXIII (2021): 37-51. To celebrate this collection at UCC, in 2026 Dr Kelly will launch a new undergraduate module at UCC based on Orientalism and the Barbara Wright Collection.
Reviews of French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference.
&
Third-Arts Convenor, BA Degree Programme, History of Art, UCC.
Dr. Kelly's teaching interests extend across the modern and contemporary periods, they include:
Modules Coordinated and Taught 100%.
Modules Co-Taught
Biography
Dr Mary Kelly (née Healy) is a Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Global Art Histories and Gallery Studies & Programme Director of the MA in Global Gallery Studies at University College Cork. She is also a Research Associate, Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Trinity College Dublin (TCD).Her Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Culture (University of Limerick [UL]) was completed under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Lawless (TCD) and Professor Carol Armstrong (Yale University).
Kelly's former academic posts and awards include: Research Fellow at CGWS, TCD (2013-2016); Language Bursary from the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris (2014); 3 x Irish Research Council New Foundations Awards (2012-14); Lecturing and Research Fellow in the History of Art and Visual Culture, UL (2012-13); Government of Ireland Scholar (2010-11), Fulbright Scholar in the Humanities and Visiting Researcher, Department of History of Art, Yale University (2010-11), Guest Lecturer and Tutor, UL (2008-2012) and UL Research Scholar (awarded 2008-2011, accepted 2008-2010).
She has published her research in peer-reviewed platforms, for example: a monograph with Routledge T&F (July 2021); journal articles with Curator: the Museum Journal (2023), Cultural & Social History (2018) and Women Studies (2015); a co-edited book with The British Academy & Oxford University Press (2020); invited chapters with the British Museum (exhibition, 2019), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pont-Aven, France (exhibition, 2021); Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (exhibition, 2022) and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (Exhibition, 2024). Kelly was the principal organiser of 'East-West Dialogue in Art History and Visual Culture: Europe, North Africa and the Middle East’, an international symposium at Trinity College Dublin in association with the Chester Beatty Library, 2014 (Funded by the IRC). She has been invited to present her work at numerous international conferences, symposia and lectures including at 'Cultural Exchanges: Transmissions and Alliances Between Modern Women Artists' (2024) a symposium to celebrate the exhibition Maestras at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; ‘Museums in Arabia’ (2019) at King’s College London and Qatar Museum Authority’s 'Orientality' conference (2015) at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
She has curated four art exhibitions, two of which were research-led: ‘Familiar Faces: Works by Influential Women Artists from the Patrick J. Murphy Collection’ (co-curated 2008), and ‘Orientalism and the Female Gaze: The Helen Hooker O’Malley Collection’ (co-curated 2007), Bourn Vincent Gallery, Ireland.
Kelly has acted as an expert advisor and academic reviewer for international foundations, art collectors, museums, art auction houses, academic publications and governmental sectors.
Research Interests
Kelly’s research focuses on how women artists from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East have responded to 'Orientalism' over the longue durée. Her work creates a bridge between 19th- and 20th-century European Orientalist art; global women’s art and transnational feminist theory; contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa; and the role of fine art galleries in societies.In my work I use a Transnational Feminist Methodology, which allows me to explore how individual women artist’s and works of art are responding to 'Orientalism' through the lens of their local and translocal experiences. Yet, simultaneously, as I move in and through the local and translocal, the methodology also permits me to show how certain women artists can reach beyond their borders to a third or transnational space where they might speak in harmony with women globally. By ‘borders’ I mean geographical borders, but also borders of ethnicity, cultural heritage, sexuality and religion as well as borders of time.
Mary Kelly, Speaking at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, May 2024.
Research Project/s and Development
Project 1: French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference.
As a part of this project, Kelly authored the first full-length book dedicated to French women Orientalist artists. She gathered primary documentation relating to seventy-two women artists whose works of art can be placed in the canon of French Orientalism between 1861 and 1956. These women were professional artists who practiced in France and the Maghreb region of North Africa particularly in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. On bringing these artists together for the first time and presenting close contextual analyses of works of art, attention is given to artists’ cross-cultural interactions with painted/sculpted representations of the Maghreb. Kelly places emphases on the gendered gaze, which entails a discussion on women’s painted perspectives of and contacts with Muslim women as well as various Maghrebi cultures and land—all the while remaining mindful of the subject position of the French artist and the problematic issues which can arise when discussing European-made ‘ethnographic’ scenes. Moreover, executed between 1861 and 1956, the works of art presented in Kelly research show influences of Modernism; therefore, she also pays close attention to progressive Realism and Naturalism in art and the Orientalist shift into Modernist subject matter and form. Through her research into French women Orientalists Kelly engages with important discussions on the crossing view of the historical female other with the cultural other, artistic hybridity and influence in art as well as the postcolonial response to French activities in colonial Algeria and the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco. On giving focus to women’s art and the impact of cross-cultural interchanges, Kelly's research rethinks Orientalism in French art.
Project 2: (Re)Mapping Orientalism in Art 1834-2024: Contemporary Women Artists from the Middle East and North Africa Unearthing New Meanings.
In this project Kelly is rethinking the term 'Orientalism'. The book looks beyond the purely European canon of historical Orientalist art objects to explore artistic responses to 'Orientalism' by contemporary women artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Kelly's approach creates new meanings for 'Orientalism' and it further contextualises art objects as being an important part of an ongoing, reciprocal socio-cultural dialogue between the global north and south. Responding to the current age of ‘post-postmodernism’, this will be the first book to conduct a comprehensive revision of Orientalism in the History of Art 1834-2024 through the lens of global histories of art, gender and transcultural theory. Kelly contends that this understated dialogue in art and visual culture can be harnessed and used in innovative ways to generate a positive and progressive exchange of ideas between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Project 3: Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies, Boole Library, University College Cork. Collaborator: C. Ó Doibhlin, Head of Research Collections, UCC.
Barbara Wright (1935–2019), Emerita Professor TCD and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur is the leading scholar on the French Orientalist artist E. Fromentin (1820-76). In 2019, Professor Wright donated her extensive Orientalist library holdings to UCC. Kelly is working with C. Ó Doibhlin on cataloguing and launching the collection.
Read: Mary Kelly, Crónán Ó Doibhlin, Barbara Wright, ‘Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies, Boole Library, University College Cork, Ireland: Legacy, the Collection and Impact’. Journal de L'Académie des Belles-Lettres, Sciences et Arts de La Rochelle, XXIII (2021): 37-51. To celebrate this collection at UCC, in 2026 Dr Kelly will launch a new undergraduate module at UCC based on Orientalism and the Barbara Wright Collection.
Reviews of French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference.
Mary Kelly’s book, spanning the heyday of nineteenth-century Orientalism into twentieth-century Modernism, is a timely and innovative contribution to orientalist art studies. The importance of Kelly’s highly original work in broadening the canon of French women Orientalists cannot be overstated. She has expanded and redefined the field through this ambitious account of women artists. From now on, it should not be possible to marginalize women’s contribution in any study of French Orientalism.
Mary Roberts, Professor of Art History and Nineteenth-Century Studies, University of Sydney.
For too long, progressive debates on French Orientalism have been driven by the eroticized harem and slave market scenes painted by Western male artists in the nineteenth century. Mary Kelly’s new book, a brilliant and welcome intervention into these debates, highlights the work of dozens of lesser-known French women artists who functioned professionally as Orientalists in the modern era, countering the sexualized stereotype of Muslim women with images that focused instead on their cultural and economic contributions to contemporary life. Through compelling cross-cultural analyses, Kelly poses nuanced questions about the gendered fantasies and realities of Orientalism, and her book reveals the multiple ways in which gender and the female gaze can complicate post-colonialism’s unitary notion of a 'Western' way of seeing the 'Orient.'
Norma Broude, Professor Emerita of Art History, American University
French Women Orientalist Artists makes a powerful connection between the depiction of female subjects in the 'East' and the life of those in the 'West.'...The book contributes a wealth of new biographical data and presents close analyses of hitherto overlooked works. This new material undergirds Mary Kelly’s insistence that gender must be understood as a key variable inflecting subject position of the Orientalist painter. Impressively rich case studies of little-known artists such as Marie Élisabeth Aimée Lucas-Robiquet and Ketty Carré demand a revision of the canon of Orientalist work both before and after the advent of Modernism. More importantly, however, to look closely at this work, as Kelly does, is to revise our conception of modern painting as a whole.
Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor and Chair of the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
Publications
Books
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2025) | (Re)Mapping Orientalism in Art 1834-2024: Contemporary Women Artists from the Middle East and North Africa Unearthing New Meanings. M. Kelly (2025) (Re)Mapping Orientalism in Art 1834-2024: Contemporary Women Artists from the Middle East and North Africa Unearthing New Meanings. -: Forthcoming. [Details] | |
| (2021) | French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference. M. Kelly (2021) French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference. New York/London: Routledge. [Details] | |
| (2020) | Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today. C. Ozpinar & M. Kelly (2020) Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today. Oxford: The British Academy & Oxford University Press. [Details] | |
| (2009) | The Water Colour Society of Ireland. Y. Davis (Ed.) and M. Healy (Research). (2009) The Water Colour Society of Ireland. Limerick: University of Limerick. [Details] |
Book Chapters
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2024) | 'Las Artistas Francesas y la Evolución de la Estética Orientalista' Mary Kelly (2024) 'Las Artistas Francesas y la Evolución de la Estética Orientalista' In: Maite Méndez Baiges (eds). Cruces de Culturas: Transmisiones y Alianzas entre Artistas Modernas. Maite Méndez Baiges (ed.) with contributions by Griselda Pollock, Rocío de la Villa, Camille Morineau, Lucia Pesapane, Concha Lomba, Menene Gras, Karen Cordero, Carla Subrizi, Mary Kelly and Maite Méndez Baiges. Madrid: Akal & Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. [Details] | |
| (2023) | 'Marie Lucas-Robiquet. Par-delà les Sujets Orientalistes Traditionnels : l’Héritage Artistique d’une Femme Moderne Orientaliste' Mary Kelly (2023) 'Marie Lucas-Robiquet. Par-delà les Sujets Orientalistes Traditionnels : l’Héritage Artistique d’une Femme Moderne Orientaliste' In: Arielle Pélenc and Sophie Kervran (eds). Artistes Voyageuses, l'Appel des Lointains (1880-1944). Pont-Aven: Musée de Pont-Aven; Palais Lumière d’Evian. [Details] | |
| (2022) | '‘Socio-Political Signifiers and Orientalist Aesthetics: European Women Artists’ Rendering of Objects and Figures in Space’' Mary Kelly (2022) '‘Socio-Political Signifiers and Orientalist Aesthetics: European Women Artists’ Rendering of Objects and Figures in Space’' In: Lucien de Guise (eds). Orientalist Paintings. Mirror or Mirage?. Kuala Lumpur:: Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia Press. [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2019) | '‘New Meanings for Orientalism: A Visual Dialogue with Contemporary Artists from the Middle East and North Africa’' M. Kelly (2019) '‘New Meanings for Orientalism: A Visual Dialogue with Contemporary Artists from the Middle East and North Africa’' In: William Greenwood & Lucien de Guise (eds). Inspired by the East. London: Peer-Reviewed Publication. British Museum with Thames & Hudson. [Details] | |
| (2019) | '‘Orientalism, Orientalist Art and the Making of Meaning’' M. Kelly (2019) '‘Orientalism, Orientalist Art and the Making of Meaning’' In: William Greenwood & Lucien de Guise (eds). Inspired by the East: How the Islamic World Influenced Western Art. London: Peer-Reviewed Publication. British Museum with Thames & Hudson. [Details] | |
| (2010) | '‘Depictions of Difference: Reviving the Forgotten French Women Orientalist Artist-Travellers, 1860-1968’' M. Healy (2010) '‘Depictions of Difference: Reviving the Forgotten French Women Orientalist Artist-Travellers, 1860-1968’' In: Crossroads of Egyptology. Prague: National Museum Prague. [Details] | |
| (2025) | 'Mme Lucas-Robiquet’s artistic portrayal of late nineteenth-century Algeria' M. Kelly (2025) 'Mme Lucas-Robiquet’s artistic portrayal of late nineteenth-century Algeria' In: Basel Jbaily (eds). Orientality: Beyond Foreign Affairs. Orientalist Museum Doha: Vol. 2 (Forthcoming, Milan). Printed in English and Arabic. [Details] |
Peer Reviewed Journals
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2023) | 'Barjeel Art Foundation: Cross-National Bridge Building and Decolonisation of the History of Art' Mary Kelly (2023) 'Barjeel Art Foundation: Cross-National Bridge Building and Decolonisation of the History of Art'. Curator: The Museum Journal, 66 (1):59-83 [Details] | |
| (2022) | 'Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies, Boole Library, University College Cork, Ireland: Legacy, the Collection and Impact' Mary Kelly, Crónán Ó Doibhlin, Barbara Wright (2022) 'Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies, Boole Library, University College Cork, Ireland: Legacy, the Collection and Impact'. Journal de L'Académie des Belles-Lettres, Sciences et Arts de La Rochelle, XXIII (2021):37-51 [Details] | |
| (2018) | 'A Complaint with the Cadi, ca. 1896: an East/West cultural encounter' Mary Healy (2018) 'A Complaint with the Cadi, ca. 1896: an East/West cultural encounter'. Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society, Vol. 15 (No. 1):79-98 [Details] | |
| (2016) | 'Book Review: Women, femininity and public space in European visual culture, 1789–1914 edited by Temma Balducci and Heather Belnap Jensen (Ashgate, 2014)' Mary Healy (2016) 'Book Review: Women, femininity and public space in European visual culture, 1789–1914 edited by Temma Balducci and Heather Belnap Jensen (Ashgate, 2014)'. Modern and Contemporary France, [Details] | |
| (2015) | 'Uncovering French Women Orientalists: Marie Elisabeth Aimée Lucas-Robiquet (1858-1959)' Mary Healy (2015) 'Uncovering French Women Orientalists: Marie Elisabeth Aimée Lucas-Robiquet (1858-1959)'. Women's Studies An Interdisciplinary Journal, 44 (8):1178-1199 [Details] | |
| (2006) | 'Contemporary Adaptations of Iconic Works: a Circa Project' Mary Healy (2006) 'Contemporary Adaptations of Iconic Works: a Circa Project'. Circa, (No. 118 (winter)):107-112 [Details] |
Invited Review Articles
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2017) | Mary Healy, ‘Kathleen James-Chakraborty (ed), India in Art in Ireland, Oxford and New York, An Ashgate Book, T&F Group, 2016.’ Irish Arts Review, 34:2 (2017): 294-5. Mary Healy (2017) Mary Healy, ‘Kathleen James-Chakraborty (ed), India in Art in Ireland, Oxford and New York, An Ashgate Book, T&F Group, 2016.’ Irish Arts Review, 34:2 (2017): 294-5. Invited Review Articles [Details] |
Catalog
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2018) | 'Marie (Elisabeth Aimée) Lucas-Robiquet'. Oxford Art Online. Mary Healy (2018) 'Marie (Elisabeth Aimée) Lucas-Robiquet'. Oxford Art Online. Catalog [Details] | |
| (2016) | 'La Porte à Tanger par Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902)' in Artcurial: Orientalisme, Cat. Orientalist art auction (Paris, May 2016). pp. 78-83. Mary Healy (2016) 'La Porte à Tanger par Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902)' in Artcurial: Orientalisme, Cat. Orientalist art auction (Paris, May 2016). pp. 78-83. Catalog [Details] | |
| (2016) | ‘Deux Enfants Marocains par Alfred Dehodencq (1822-1882)’ in Artcurial: Orientalisme, Cat. Orientalist art auction (Paris, May 2016). pp 70-75. Mary Healy (2016) ‘Deux Enfants Marocains par Alfred Dehodencq (1822-1882)’ in Artcurial: Orientalisme, Cat. Orientalist art auction (Paris, May 2016). pp 70-75. Catalog [Details] | |
| (2016) | 'Odalisques par Adrien Henri Tanoux (1865-1923)' in Artcurial: Orientalisme, Cat. Orientalist art auction (Paris, May 2016). pp 50-55. Mary Healy (2016) 'Odalisques par Adrien Henri Tanoux (1865-1923)' in Artcurial: Orientalisme, Cat. Orientalist art auction (Paris, May 2016). pp 50-55. Catalog [Details] | |
| (2013) | 'Le Petit Tailleur by Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858-1959)’ in Artcurial: Orientalisme. Cat. major Orientalist art auction (Paris, June 2013): 50-53. English and French. Reprint in 2014 and 2015. Mary Healy (2013) 'Le Petit Tailleur by Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858-1959)’ in Artcurial: Orientalisme. Cat. major Orientalist art auction (Paris, June 2013): 50-53. English and French. Reprint in 2014 and 2015. Catalog [Details] | |
| (2007) | ‘Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)’ & ‘Theory on the Hokusai nishiki-e print held at University of Limerick’, in Orientalism & the Female Gaze. Exh. Cat. (2007), pp 34-39. Mary Healy (2007) ‘Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)’ & ‘Theory on the Hokusai nishiki-e print held at University of Limerick’, in Orientalism & the Female Gaze. Exh. Cat. (2007), pp 34-39. Catalog [Details] |
Online Multimedia
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2021) | Oxford University Press 'On SHAPE: a Q&A with Lucy Noakes, Eyal Poleg, Laura Wright & Mary Kelly'. L. Noakes, E. Poleg, L. Wright & M. Kelly (2021) Oxford University Press 'On SHAPE: a Q&A with Lucy Noakes, Eyal Poleg, Laura Wright & Mary Kelly'. Online Multimedia [Details] | |
| (2021) | The British Academy 'How can art history be decolonised?'. M. Kelly, C. Ozpinar (2021) The British Academy 'How can art history be decolonised?'. London: Online Multimedia [Details] | |
| (2020) | Irish Fulbright Alumni Association. Equipping Students with Robust Cross-Cultural Competencies. Mary Kelly (2020) Irish Fulbright Alumni Association. Equipping Students with Robust Cross-Cultural Competencies. Online Multimedia [Details] | |
| (2019) | What an MA in Global Gallery Studies Means For You and Your Future Career. Stephanie Lukins & Mary Kelly (2019) What an MA in Global Gallery Studies Means For You and Your Future Career. London: Online Multimedia [Details] | |
| (2014) | East-West Dialogue in Art History and Visual Culture: Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. An International Symposium at Trinity College Dublin in association with the Chester Beatty Library, Ireland, (Dublin, 2014). Mary Healy (2014) East-West Dialogue in Art History and Visual Culture: Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. An International Symposium at Trinity College Dublin in association with the Chester Beatty Library, Ireland, (Dublin, 2014). Online Multimedia [Details] |
Professional Activities
Honours and Awards
| Year | Title | Awarding Body | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Commission on Women and Gender Studies in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, DHST (IUHPST). ICHST 2025 (New Zealand) Conference Travel Grant. | Commission on Women and Gender Studies in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, DHST (IUHPST) | |
| 2024 | Academic Returners Scheme | University College Cork | |
| 2022 | Supervisor: Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. PhD Student Giulia Priori | Irish Research Council | |
| 2021 | Symposium Funded by the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland | Irish Museum of Modern Art | |
| 2014 | Language Fellowship | Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. | |
| 2013 | 2 x IRC New Foundations Awards, 2013-14 | Irish Research Council | |
| 2012 | IRC New Foundations Award, 2012-13 | Irish Research Council | |
| 2010 | Fulbright Award for Research in the Humanities (Yale University) | Irish Fulbright Commission | |
| 2010 | Irish Research Council Scholarship | Irish Research Council | |
| 2008 | UL Scholar (awarded 2008-11, accepted 2008-10). | University of Limerick |
Conference Contributions
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2024) | Cultural Exchanges. Transmissions and Alliances between Modern Women Artists. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Mary Kelly (2024) French Women Artists Advancing Orientalist Aesthetics. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Cultural Exchanges. Transmissions and Alliances between Modern Women Artists. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid . [Details] | |
| (2024) | Hilary Heron Ireland’s Most Promising Sculptor, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Mary Kelly (2024) (Re)FRAMING Reclining Woman: Heron’s Sculptural Contribution to an Art Historical and Transnational Feminist Discourse. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Hilary Heron Ireland’s Most Promising Sculptor, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Trinity Long Room Hub . [Details] | |
| (2022) | Oriental Studies and Research, a conference organized to mark the centenary of the Prague Oriental Institute, Mary Kelly (2022) Socio-Political Signifiers and Orientalist Aesthetics: European Women Artists’ Rendering of Objects and Figures in Space. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Oriental Studies and Research, a conference organized to mark the centenary of the Prague Oriental Institute, Prague Oriental Institute , 05-SEP-22 - 07-SEP-22. [Details] | |
| (2020) | Eugène Fromentin, 1820 – 2020, Mary Kelly, Patrick Crowley, Crónán Ó Doibhlin, (2020) ‘Barbara Wright Library of Nineteenth-Century Textual and Visual Studies at the Boole Library, University College Cork, Ireland: legacy, the collection and future impact.’. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Eugène Fromentin, 1820 – 2020, Médiathèque. Michel-Crépeau, La Rochelle, France , 16-OCT-20 - 17-OCT-20. [Details] | |
| (2019) | Museums in Arabia Conference, Mary Kelly (née Healy) (2019) “Decentring the History of Art from the Global North: the Barjeel Art Foundation’s Creation of Spaces for Understanding ‘Borders’”. [Oral Presentation], Museums in Arabia Conference, Kings College London , 01-JUN-16 - 28-JUN-19. [Details] | |
| (2016) | National Gallery of Ireland, Mary Healy (2016) 'Representations of gender crossing borders: women artists and Orientalism 1870-1936'. [Invited Seminars/Guest Lectures], National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin , 20-NOV-16. [Details] | |
| (2016) | Crawford Art Gallery Cork, Mary Healy (2016) Visualising the 'Orient'. [Invited Seminars/Guest Lectures], Crawford Art Gallery Cork, Cork , 02-DEC-16. [Details] | |
| (2015) | Orientality: Beyond Foreign Affairs. A Conference organised by the Orientalist Museum Qatar, Mary Healy (2015) ‘Mme Lucas-Robiquet’s artistic portrayal of late nineteenth-century Algeria.’ See film at https://vimeo.com/132633919. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Orientality: Beyond Foreign Affairs. A Conference organised by the Orientalist Museum Qatar, National Portrait gallery, London . [Details] | |
| (2014) | Feminist Art History Conference 2014,, Mary Healy (2014) ‘A Culturally Inquisitive Meeting Space: A Complaint with the Cadi, c. 1896.’. [Oral Presentation], Feminist Art History Conference 2014,, American University, Washington DC, USA . [Details] | |
| (2014) | Egypt and Austria X, Mary Healy (2014) ‘Challenging Otherness? A woman Orientalist’s painted representation of late 19th-Century Algeria’. [Oral Presentation], Egypt and Austria X, The Institute of Social and Economic History (hosted by the Academy of Performing Arts), Charles University, Prague . [Details] | |
| (2013) | Alternative Modernisms: an International, Interdisciplinary Conference, Mary Healy (2013) Reframing modernist representations of North African women: French women Orientalists, 1890-1930’. [Oral Presentation], Alternative Modernisms: an International, Interdisciplinary Conference, Cardiff University, UK . [Details] | |
| (2013) | The Irish Art Research Centre (TRIARC) and the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, TCD Guest Lecture Series, Mary Healy (2013) ‘Orientalism and the Visual Source: An “Open Platform of Discussion” '. [Invited Seminars/Guest Lectures], The Irish Art Research Centre (TRIARC) and the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, TCD Guest Lecture Series, TCD . [Details] | |
| (2013) | College Art Association 101st Annual Conference, Mary Healy (2013) ‘Shifting the imagined erotic object to a heterogeneous modernist subject: Maghrebi female interiors as painted by French women Orientalists, 1890-1930’. [Oral Presentation], College Art Association 101st Annual Conference, New York, USA . [Details] | |
| (2011) | Gender, Culture & Society PhD Discussion Forum, Mary Healy (2011) Research (French women's Art). [Invited Seminars/Guest Lectures], Gender, Culture & Society PhD Discussion Forum, University of Limerick, Ireland . [Details] | |
| (2011) | Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, Mary Healy (2011) ‘Reviving the forgotten French women Orientalist artists, 1860-1968: cross-cultural contact and western depictions of difference’. [Oral Presentation], Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand . [Details] | |
| (2010) | Evening Lecture Series: Department of the History of Art, Yale University, Mary Healy (2010) ‘Depictions of difference: cultural translations within the works of French women Orientalist artists 1860-1968’. [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Evening Lecture Series: Department of the History of Art, Yale University, Loria Centre, New Haven, USA . [Details] | |
| (2009) | Research Day, Artefact: The Journal of the Irish Association of Art Historians, Mary Healy (2009) 'Women Orientalist artist-explorers of 19th-Century France: the forgotten female perspective’. . [Oral Presentation], Research Day, Artefact: The Journal of the Irish Association of Art Historians, Newman House, St. Stephens Green, Dublin, Ireland . [Details] | |
| (2009) | Egypt and Austria VI conference, Mary Healy (2009) ‘Reviving the forgotten French women Orientalist artist-travellers, 1860-1968’. . [Invited Lectures (Conference)], Egypt and Austria VI conference, The National Museum, Prague . [Details] | |
| (2008) | Research Day: National Gallery of Ireland, Mary Healy (2008) ‘Uncovering the Life Narrative, Artistic Career and Oeuvre of Marie Elisabeth Aimée Lucas-Robiquet (1858-1959)’. [Oral Presentation], Research Day: National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin . [Details] |
Outreach Activities
| Description | |
|---|---|
Dr Kelly’s research on women orientalists has partly inspired the development of major international art exhibitions, including: MAESTRAS, Room dedicated to Orientalism and Genre Painting. From 31 October 2023 to 4 February 2024, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain. Curator: Rocío de la Villa. And, Artistes Voyageuses l'Appel des Lointains, 1880-1944. 24 June - 5 November 2023. Musée de Pont-Aven, France, in association with Palais Lumière de la Ville d'Evian, 11 Dec. 2022 – 21 May 2023. Curators: Arielle Pélenc & William Saadé. | |
Principal Organiser with Sophie Byrne, Assistant Curator: Talks & Public Programmes, IMMA; Dr. Leonor de Oliveira, Institute of Art History, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa; Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator: Head of Collections, IMMA. Online Seminar - ‘Paula Rego’s creative performativity and approximations to Irish contemporary art’ at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Wednesday 24 March 2021. This event was a collaboration between the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the MA in Global Gallery Studies, UCC. | |
Principal Organiser: 'East-West Dialogue in Art History and Visual Culture: Europe, North Africa and the Middle East', an International Symposium at Trinity College Dublin in association with the Chester Beatty Library, Ireland. Funded by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Scheme. For details see http://visualculture.eu | |
02 Dec. 2016. [Invited Public Lecture] Mary Healy “Visualising the 'Orient'”, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. | |
20 Nov. 2016. Mary Healy, [Invited Public Lecture], 'Representations of gender crossing borders: women artists and Orientalism 1870-1936', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. | |
28 Sept. 2016. Mary Healy [organiser]. Public Lecture by Professor Roger Benjamin (Sydney), ‘Exhibiting Biskra Art, Photography & Tourism in an Algerian Oasis’ at UCC. | |
7 Apr. 2016. Mary Healy (organiser). Public Lecture by Briony Llewellyn 'An Orientalist case study: Cross-cultural threads in the images of John Frederick Lewis (1804-1876)', at UCC. | |
Mary Healy, Curator: [art exhibition] The Water Colour Society of Ireland National Collection, Bourn Vincent Gallery, Ireland, 2009. | |
Mary Healy, Curator: [art exhibition] Plassey Partners: An Exhibition of Works by Selected Artists, Bourn Vincent Gallery, Ireland, 2009. | |
Mary Healy, Co-Curator: [art exhibition] Familiar Faces: Works by Influential Women Artists from the Patrick J. Murphy Collection, Bourn Vincent Gallery, Ireland, 2008. | |
Mary Healy, Co-Curator: [art exhibition] Orientalism and the Female Gaze: The Helen Hooker O’Malley Collection, the Bourn Vincent Gallery, Ireland. Opened by the ambassador of Japan His Excellency Keiichi Hayashi, 2007. | |
Mary Healy. Exhibiting artist: [art exhibition] An exhibition of Works by Mary Healy, Ethna O’Byrne & Marian McGrath, Limerick Printmakers, Ireland, 2006. | |
Mary Healy. Exhibiting artist: [art exhibition] The RDS Art Awards, Dublin, 2006. | |
Mary Healy. Exhibiting artist: [art exhibition] The RDS Irish Travelling Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland, 2006. | |
Mary Healy. Exhibiting artist: [art exhibition] Works in Focus, The Bell Table Limerick, Ireland, 2006. |
Committees
| Committee | Function | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCC Academic Council | Elected Member | 2020 / | |
| CACSSS College Council | Member | 2016 / | |
| CACSSS Student Experience Committee | Member | 2020 / 2022 | |
| School of History Research Committee | Member | 2020 / | |
| History of Art Graduate Studies Committee | Member | 2016 / |
Professional Associations
| Association | Function | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women for Sustainable Growth, Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. | Advisor | 01-NOV-19 / | |
| Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, TCD | Research Associate | 31-MAY-18 / | |
| Association for Modern + Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran + Turkey | Member | 01-JUL-16 / | |
| College Art Association, USA | Member | 01-OCT-10 / | |
| Egypt and Austria (study of European historic travel and in the Greater Middle East). | Member | 02-MAR-09 / |
Other Activities
| Description | |
|---|---|
Select Media & Reviews 'Mary Healy, a graduate in print, staged ambitious photographic tableaux reworking iconic paintings with great verve, showing a vastly more attentive awareness of painting than most of her fellow graduates in the painting department.’ - Aidan Dunne, ‘Artists on the Line’. The Irish Times (27 June, 2006), p. 12. 2022 Book Review published by Sotheby's: Orientalist Paintings: Mirror or Mirage? (2022). https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/more-mirror-than-mirage 2021 Book Review: 'Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histoies from the Middle East and North Africa Today, co-edited by C. Ozpinar and M. Kelly. by Nadia Radwan, Third Text, Aug. 2021
2020: Book Review. Madeline Boden, 'Inspired by the East: how the Islamic world influenced Western art edited by William Greenwood and Lucien de Guise, London, British Museum Publishing, 2019'. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 46:1 (2020). "Mary Kelly analyses several depictions of Muslims at prayer including a fascinating re-reading of Rudolf Ernst’s La Charité chez les Derviches à Scutari (1893) and the work of Étienne Dinet, a French Orientalist who converted to Islam...Kelly [also] reflects on the contemporary work in the exhibition by Iranian artist, Shirin Neshat and Moroccan photographer, Laila Essaydi. Their work confronts ‘two of the west’s predominant stereotypes of Islam: the submissive . . . Islamic woman and the radical Islamic fundamentalist'... in an exhibition dominated by male artists, they are a welcome and insightful inclusion." (p.98–99). 2015: Art Historical Contributor: interviewed by the Qatar Museum Authority for short promotional film about their Orientality Conference series. Available via the Orientalist Museum , see here. 2014: Art Historical Contributor: interviewed for film archive about the art collector and philanthropist M. Shafik Gabr of Cairo and Washington DC. Directed and produced by Multi Emmy Award winner and National Geographic Documentaries producer Ms. Christine Weber. 2013: Heather Madar & Joan DelPlato, ‘Harems Imagined and Real, Panel at the Annual College Art Association Conference, New York, February 16, 2013’ (Healy was a member of this panel). International Journal of Islamic Architecture, Vol. 2, N° 2 (July 2013), pp 435-438. 2011: Niall Murray, ‘Invaluable Access to Rare Journals’. Irish Examiner (feature on Healy's research at Yale, 4 Jan., 2011), p. 6. 2010: Colette Sheridan, ‘Healy’s Take on Women Artists’. Irish Examiner (27 July, 2010), p. 14. 2010: Christine Brennan, ‘The Forgotten Artists’. UL Links Magazine (July, 2010), pp 63-65. 2010: Pauline Matthews, ‘Yale Holds the Key to Success for Mary’. Evening Echo (6 October, 2010), p. 15. 2010: Gordon Smith, ‘Scholars to Live Dream in America’. The Irish Times, 2 July 2010. 2009: Julie Hornsby, ‘Highlights of A.S.T.E.N.E. Conference 2009’. Cornucopia (Healy's paper was featured), July 2009. 2006: Myles Dungan, ‘Discussion on Mary Healy’s art’. The Arts Show, Radio One, Ireland, 21 Aug. 2006. |
Teaching Activities
Teaching Interests
Dr. Kelly is the Programme Director, MA in Global Gallery Studies, UCC. See https://www.ucc.ie/en/cke82/&
Third-Arts Convenor, BA Degree Programme, History of Art, UCC.
Dr. Kelly's teaching interests extend across the modern and contemporary periods, they include:
- Global women’s art, identities, societies and gender theories.
- Interdisciplinary approaches to European Orientalism, representation and visual culture since 1800.
- Post-1945 decolonisation and postcolonial theories and their impact on artists’ identities, art making and art history and theories.
- The rise of modern and contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in art history since 2000.
- The (re)presenting of MENA identities and cultural heritages through art and the gallery space.
- 21st-century globalisation and the decentring of the (European and American) art canon.
- Traditional histories of the museum & gallery space, the development of ‘the white cube space’ and the ‘new museum'.
- Galleries in a global context and the multiple roles of galleries in our societies.
Modules Coordinated and Taught 100%.
- HA2011 From Modernism to Postmodernism
- HA2017 Legible/Visible: Art and Interpretation
- HA3028 Global Artistic Interventions
- HA6027 Project-Led Gallery Internship
- HA6025 Global Galleries Fieldwork
Modules Co-Taught
- HA1001 History of Art
- HA3013 Special Supervised Research Project (Coordinator and co-taught)
- HA3029 Art & Gender Identities (co-taught, 50%)
- HA6028 Research Dissertation in Global Gallery Studies (Coordinator and co-taught)
- HA6019 Research Methods and Sources for Global Gallery (Coordinator and co-taught, 50%)
- HA6026 Global Galleries: History, Theory & Practice (Coordinator and co-taught, 50%)
- HA6024 Global Contemporary Art (co-taught, 50%)
Recent Postgraduates
| Graduation Year | Student Name | Institution | Degree Type | Thesis Title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Phoebe Milne | University College Cork | Master of Arts | Kwobidak Koortaboodja [Beautiful Heartland]: the Herbert Mayer Collection and Transcultural Aesthetics | |
| 2022 | Marie Lynch | University College Cork | Master of Arts | Curating in Context: Peacelines, Murals and Brechtian strategies in the exhibition Felix Gonzalez-Torres: This Place (2015/16) at the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast | |
| 2021 | Fiona Carey | University College Cork | MASTER OF ARTS | Beloved Bodies and Beloved Bodies II: the curation of love and desire at the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah in 2016 & 2017 | |
| 2021 | Giulia Luciani | University College Cork | MASTER OF ARTS | Paintings from Afar: Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris. | |
| 2021 | Kelly Udall | University College Cork | Master of Arts | Belonging to The Desert | |
| 2017 | Ellen Byrne | University College Cork | MASTER OF ARTS | The Role of National Identity and Memory in Representations of the female Body as a contested site in Contemporary Irish Art (1991-2017) | |
| 2017 | Máire Domhnat McKeown | University College Cork | MASTER OF ARTS | An Analysis of the Role of Photographs in Irish Missionary Magazines 1914-1930: Construction of the 'Other' and impact on Irish Self-Identity' | |
| 2017 | Joris Bakhuis | University College Cork | MASTER OF ARTS | Third Space Theory in Contemporary Art Practice in the Netherlands: potential benefits for the Dutch-Surinamese Postcolonial Relationship | |
| 2014 | Mona Hamed | Trinity College Dublin | Master of Philosophy | ‘Deconstructing Representations of Muslims' | |
| 2013 | Anna Shaver | University of Limerick | MASTER OF ARTS | ‘The American painter Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones (1885-1968)' | |
| 2013 | Malihe Zafarnezhad | University of Limerick | MASTER OF ARTS | ‘Sourcing the historical lineage of the 17th- century paintings at Chihil Sutun Palace (Iran, 1647)' |
Contact details
- Mary Kelly
Lecturer - mary.kelly@ucc.ie
- 3 Perrott Avenue
University College Cork
Cork
Ireland - +353 214903926