Liam Kelly is a Professor of Irish Visual Culture at the School of Art and Design, University of Ulster, Belfast. He holds a BA(Hons.) degree in the History of European Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and a Ph.D from Trinity College, Dublin. He is a writer and broadcaster on contemporary Irish  and international art. His publications include Thinking Long – Contemporary Art in the North of Ireland;

The City as Art (ed.) ,The Disembodied Eye and The School of Art and Design, Belfast 1960-2009.

He has also curated both solo and thematic exhibitions in Ireland, Australia, USA, France, Slovenia and Hong Kong. He took part in L’imaginaire Irlandais, a major festival of Irish culture, as curator of Language Mapping and Power, exhibited in Paris in 1996.  From 1986-1992 he was Director of the Orpheus Gallery, Belfast and from 1996-1999 Director of the Orchard Gallery, Derry.

He is a Vice-President of The International Association of Art Critics and former executive board member of Association of Art Historians (UK). Currently he is a member of the BBC N.Ireland Audience Council and a board member of The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast.